TOWER HANGERS BY A FEW FINGERTIPS
by meandmyfriends
Summary: Bloody hell Weasley, I said try and catch my hand if you can! Not, 'Please Weasley, try and pull me down the bloody Astronomy Tower with you!" Ch7:Surely that's not a mugging going on. Right?
1. Chapter 1 why do i hang with him

Disclaimer: I _want_ to own Rose and Scorpius but I don't. I do however own a few of the characters that will pop up a few times.

A/N: _Please, please, please_ review. this is, like, my second ever chapter ever on FF and reviews send that much needed rush of golden energy across. I know that there are a lot of Rose and Scorpius stories across FF but what can I say? i _looooooove _them. So please read and tell me what you think.

TOWER HANGERS BY A FEW FINGERTIPS

PROLOGUE

"Bloody hell Weasley, I said try and catch my _hand_ if you can! Not, 'Please Weasley, try and _pull me down the bloody Astronomy Tower with you!"_

Rose winced. What he was saying was indeed true but it wasn't_ completely_ all her fault. So she felt quite justified in retorting, "Wow Malfoy, if you are such a genius, then how come you didn't astound me with your mental prowess and Leviosa me up?"

He turned and glared at her, quite a feat considering that he was currently hanging on to life by both hands. She nearly felt pity that her mistake had landed them in such a problem, but it vanished the moment he opened his mouth and said, "Oh I don't know, maybe because _someone _grabbed my wand and then proceeded to drop it all the way to the ground?"

His sarcastic tone might have caused a lesser being to blush with mortification but Rose felt a dubious rush of pleasure at the fact that she was a Gryffindor and Gryffindors did not blush with mortification at things that Slytherins said. Though it would be a terrible thing indeed that her last dose of pleasure had come due to _him_, dying while taking down a Malfoy was a noble thing indeed. However, she still couldn't help thinking that not dying at all was a much nobler profession, especially as it wouldn't include splattering all her brain fluids on an unappreciative ground.

All these depressing thought did not stop her from hitting Malfoy exactly where it hurts the most though, since the day a Weasley failed to respond with biting acerbity to something a Malfoy said, would be the day hell froze over. "I didn't. I simply considered you stronger than you were and that caused the momentary lapse in reflexes that caused the wand to fly from your hands and off the tower."

She barely hid the grin that threatened to come out despite their current circumstances. It was no fun teasing him when he knew that was what she was doing. He had the annoying talent of actually following the principle of_ don't give them a reaction and they will go away._ Very irritating but it didn't work when he didn't know that she was deliberately trying to get a rise of him, a fact he proved when he scowled angrily and nearly shouted, "I'm perfectly strong enough. It's not my fault if you have the strength and figure of a troll."

She really did try, but couldn't stop the snigger that came out at that. His scowl instantly grew even more into what he probably considered fearsome and Rose felt the illogical urge to actually laugh. No doubt it had something to do with the fact that her arms were starting to feel pleasantly weary. She knew that they were going to start hurting like hell any time soon though, so she ignored her urges and asked, barely hiding the urgency she felt, "You're a Quidditch player aren't you? How come you don't have better reflexes?"

It was an important question that she needed the right answer to if her plan was to have even a chance of succeeding.

Malfoy sneered, "And do you think many Quidditch teams except Slytherin make it a habit to go around pulling people off brooms?"

"Yes" she said decisively. She knew all about dirty Quidditch with three cousins on the Gryffindor team as well as her only brother and let's not forget the cousin on the Slytherin team.

Malfoy sighed as if he had never encountered such a stupid individual before, something she knew to be quite false as most Slytherins did not have enough brains to challenge the Giant Squid's intellect, as he explained as if to a toddler, "Seekers get attacked by bludgers and Chasers get attacked by team members. Get it? Now imagine what _I_ am. Blimey Weasley! You really don't like Quidditch matches, do you?"

"I don't like the game itself," Rose replied derisively. "But I still think that you should have a better sense of balance."

"And what do _you _know about balance, Miss _I trip on my own feet for breakfast, lunch and dinner?"_

Rose couldn't help the blush that his words caused but she nevertheless retorted, "A lot more than you evidently, since _I_ was pushed to land here."

"For one thing, you haven't yet landed and hope to hell that you don't. And second, DON'T YOU _DARE_ BLAME THIS ON ME! So just shut the fuck up."

"You shout entirely too much," she fumbled, looking for a bad enough word that wouldn't make him too mad, finally settling on, "you _git_! So _you_ shut the bloody hell up."

"I'm fed up of this," he shot back, "here I am, getting ready to die along with you and you can't even manage a proper retort? Just shut that mouth and only say yes or no. do you or do you not have your wand with you?"

"_Some of us_ don't make it a habit to lose our only weapon as carelessly as you apparently do, Malfoy. So the answer to your question will be _yes, I do have my wand._" She only hoped that she was right and her wand hadn't gone flying by the jerk of her falling.

Malfoy, however did not seem to have even considered that unlucky coincidence, or maybe he really _was_ that good at pretending, as all he really said was an exasperated, "Well get it out won't you?"

Rose fumed. The way he was behaving was so highhanded that it was quite unbelievable that anyone except him could ever behave like this. Did he really think that she would have asked him for help the first time around if it was that easy?

"_Some of us_, Malfoy, really _don't_ make it a habit to practice hanging using only one arm. It implies a certain lack of body coordination."

Incredibly enough, Malfoy only smirked instead of going into a detailed explanation as to why she was an idiot for not having for once in her life, attempted to not learn something she came across. She found the reason at his next words, "Feeling like having a last grope before breaking a few bones are we?"

Before she could do anything except open her mouth though, he shushed her up and said, "Don't you worry, Scorpius Malfoy to the rescue."


	2. 2 she's not leaving me hanging, right?

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters here, nor their surroundings, only the situation.

A/N: thanks to all those who reviewed, Favorited or put this story on alert.

I had all these wonderful dialogues lined up, but then I realized that they were hanging off a tower! There weren't supposed to be _any_ dialogues, let alone witty ones. so this one is a bit more serious, though not to any amount to make a big difference.

on a pleading note, _please review. _it feels wonderful to open the story and see that there are _reviews_!

CHAPTER 1

"Well, what are you waiting for? Get snapping! Rescue me." Rose said nastily at that pronouncement. Who did he think he was that he could rescue her? Any rescue happening would have an equal amount of contribution from her as anyone else.

"I didn't mean it literally, Weasley," he said with pursed lips.

She hated the fact that he could be so composed when all she could think of at that moment was the fact that they were metres above the ground and chances were that they would fall any moment now. There wasn't even a '_they'_ in it.

It was all up to her, she knew, and no one would ever know how thankful she was that she had finished thinking up a marvellous, workable plan _before_ her brain stopped working. And seeing as how he didn't seem to be coming up with a plan himself, however mediocre it may be, there wasn't really a problem with winding him up a bit was there?

So she felt no compunctions at all in telling him reproachfully, "Well you ought to have."

He didn't seem to believe her- she would have to work on her lying- but he nevertheless said, "Fine, fine, I'll rescue you. You're lucky that Mercy's our team captain."

Oh, this was getting interesting. She waited with barely concealed glee at what foolhardy plan he had come up with that seemed to have its origins with Mercy, the crazy Slytherin Quidditch captain. But when he spoke, it did not seem to be that foolish at all, though the rest of it certainly seemed to.

"She's got this idea in her head that the Hufflepuffs are copycats and have some sort of contingency plan of being _ferocious_. She's been having us practice all sorts of acrobatics on brooms, so it seems like you'll be getting your grope after all."

And saying this, he let go of the railing so that he was holding it with only one hand and with the other hand, he started delving into her robes, no doubt to search for the pockets. It wasn't quite that stupid at all. Indeed, it seemed remarkably like the plan that she had come up with. After all, he was looking for her wand, just as she had wanted him to, and she definitely did not think that he was taking the opportunity to grope her.

It had a few unpredicted effects though. First, it tickled, which made her shake with suppressed laughter, which made her squirm a little in order to get away, which in turn made her whimper as it made her move entirely too much for het liking.

She felt compelled to say something about it, only it came out sounding more like a squeak than anything else, "Hey! You're making me move. _Don't!_ "

He definitely did not seem to appreciate it as he said sarcastically, not even bothering to look at her while doing so, "Well, maybe you think that hanging's not a talent, but it is, one that incidentally, I'm not very good at." She had all sorts of retorts ready to say after this, but unfortunately, he then continued,

"It's not here."

He sounded frustrated and she could understand it. She was right handed and her wand ought to be in her left pocket, the one nearest to her. She felt like crying, indeed, even felt a few tears gather as the situation became alarmingly real. Never before had any of their fights gotten so bad that they nearly died. All the Professors always said that one day they would make Al attend both their funerals, but she had never really believed it till now. And now she, the cleverest witch of their year, was wand less? She was so helpless now that she had lost her wand, now that none of her _cleverness_ was going to work.

And then she remembered something when Scorpius huffed as he returned his hand back to the railing, sounding a lot like Al.

_Al_ had spilled water on his Transfiguration essay as he double checked it that afternoon, and since her wand was already in her hand as she was trying to successfully flip it more than a few times and faster than the crawl of a snail, he had simply taken it from her and used it to siphon off the water. _Al _had put the wand back when he finished with it as she had been rummaging through her bag at that moment. _And Al had returned it to the pocket nearest to him, that is, the pocket on the right side of her robes._

"It's in the other pocket!" she exclaimed excitedly, though how she still had any excitement left in her any more, she just couldn't understand. Scorpius didn't seem to have _any _excitement left at all as he instantly said, sounding quite morose, "Well you can get it then."

"I can't, remember?" she reminded him, "I am not in any Quidditch team at all, let alone one which makes me practice hanging from one hand. "

He sent her a look which seemed to imply that she was being difficult just for the sake of being contrary, then said with pursed lips-he did seem to have a habit of doing that-, "Since you seem to be doing pretty well hanging from two hands, move nearer to me since I can't reach your other side."

She opened her mouth to say no but then shut it, realising that he seemed to be doing most of the rescuing, and what did _that_ make of her resolution to do her part in any rescues happening? So she gritted her teeth, took a deep breath, and let go with one hand. _And promptly placed it back_. No, this certainly wasn't going to work. Some more preparation was needed. So she systematically-but swiftly, whatever Malfoy might later say- placed most of her weight on her left hand, and slowly but steadily, moved her right hand nearer to it, without once actually letting go of the base of the railing that she was clinging to so desperately. _And it worked! _ She repeated the process, just with the other hand, and she was now marginally closer to Malfoy. She turned to beam at him, but he just shook his head. His arms, she noticed, seemed to quiver for an instant before stabilising again.

That couldn't be good, so without saying anything, she repeated the process. And realised that Malfoy had to do the rest all on his own now, because for one thing, her palms were sweaty and for another, her eyes were burning since some sweat seemed to have dripped down her forehead to them too. And thirdly, but most importantly, her arms were quivering, and her shoulder blades were aching, and her habit of lugging around heavy library books was not going to help her for much longer. Because all this meant that her grip was going to slip at any moment. She was too tired to do anything else. Malfoy was her last hope, and it was galling that she couldn't even find it in herself to find _that galling. _

She still managed to muster enough energy to say though a little weakly, "I can't believe I'm saying this but I hope to hell Malfoy, that you were paying attention to Mercy, because this is the furthest I can go."

"There, that wasn't so hard, was it?" he seemed intent upon goading her, and it seemed to work, since she immediately flared up, with embarrassing swiftness, to say sarcastically, "Well, we can't all have enough cheer to laugh as we fall, but I swear to you Malfoy, that if I fall, I'm taking you with me."

He obediently stretched out his hand towards her, but said, 'Al'll need someone to cry on."

"He can cry on Eloisa," She said ruthlessly, "I don't care."

"Well I do, so we're lucky that we're both going to live this day, aren't we?" and saying his, he took out her wand and placed both his hands back on the railing. "Take it and float me up, will you?"

"Can't," was the immediate response.

He shot an irritated glance at her as he said, "For Merlin's sake, Weasley, have some trust, I wouldn't leave you here."

"I know," she admitted, "But I really can't. I can't feel my fingers and my shoulders are burning."

He muttered something that sounded like 'well so are mine' under his breath but maneuvered the wand till it pointed at her and said with a barely perceptible swish and flick movement, "_Wingardium Leviosa."_

She let go of the railing cautiously as she felt the floating spell take effect. She held her breath till she landed safely on the roof of the tower, albeit a bit roughly.

She only took a second to try to calm her heartbeat though, and then rushed to take her wand from Malfoy and levitate him to the top of the tower too.

And then the delayed reaction seemed to take place in both of them as they seemed to collapse at almost the same time. Rose felt her body start to shake and she felt alarmingly close to tears. _She could have died!_ She nearly did and took Malfoy along with her, all so she could get an upper hand on him? She didn't _need_ to pull his wand. She knew he wouldn't have left her there to fall and break her neck. He just wasn't like that, not to mention Al would have killed him if anything happened.

She took a deep shuddering breath and then let it go. It seemed to have a somewhat calming effect on her nerves, so she repeated the process till she felt sufficiently composed, and then turned to face Malfoy. He was lying on his back, seemingly calmly gazing at the stars, but she knew better. His hands twitching at irregular intervals gave him away.

She gave him a simple smile that he probably didn't see, and said, "Sorry"

He didn't give any sign that he had heard her at all, but then said out of the blue, "Me too."

And she knew what he was apologizing for, just as she knew that he too knew what she was apologizing for.


	3. Chapter 3 My Ist exploits with a ferret

Disclaimer:I don't own anyone here except the Potions teacher whose name I can't remember and Eloisa.

**A/N: I wanted to name Eloisa Blackwell but then I decided to give her a more recognizable name. i don't remember whether I described her, but if I didn't, rest assured that there will be a mirror scene in the next chapter or a compare one, I haven't decided yet. that said, read and enjoy.**

Chapter 2

As they lay there on the roof, Rose came up with a very strange question, a question that was so strange that she felt like it needed to be said aloud. So she asked Malfoy, "How did we get here, to this place?"

"We climbed stairs and if you mean to say that you have forgotten our near death experience so soon, I am going to personally _choke you to death_."

Malfoy sounded like he really meant it too, so Rose quickly clarified what she meant, "I mean to the place that talking about accidental deaths caused due to our frequent fights is second nature?"

"It's your fault," Malfoy said confidently. "If you hadn't put those crushed eel eyes down my neck, this would have never happened."

_Well, that was rude!_ Someone sure knew how to hold a grudge, "It's not as if it was fatal."

"So you think, "he sounded quite put off by the thing, as if he already regretted bringing up the subject.

But she wasn't going to be put off so easily. There were few things as fun as needling a Malfoy, and just because their latest imbroglio showed that he may not be _all bad _was no reason to stop. So she quite confidently said, "Yeah, I actually do. My memory is picture perfect. I think I would know if it was fatal. Which, incidentally, it very clearly was not since you have since lived to have fatal incidents as a matter of course."

He shot her a nasty look the topic was quite undeserving of as he said, "Miss Know It All, you don't know a thing about me. So how would you know that I'm not allergic to eel eyes?"

She rose up on an elbow to look at him and then promptly collapsed. He snickered. She threw a glare his way as she rolled her arms, trying to get them in working condition again. He did not stop, so she asked in a sickly sweet voice, "Is little Scorpy scared of eels?"

He instantly lunged at her and this time it was her turn to laugh as he promptly collapsed without getting in arm's reach of her. He scowled at her and said angrily, "You know, this is how we got here. You insult me and I retaliate. And then you take it a step beyond."

She instantly stopped laughing and gaped at him. "How dare you put the whole blame on me? It was you who started this fight of ours, remember?"

He corrected her, "No, I remember being friendly, and you snubbing me. And then me insulting your cousin, which by the way, I apologised to him for and then you storming off. I remember an unprovoked attack on my tender eleven year old self because you felt insulted that I was better at you at something, and even more, that your cousin did not wait moping around for you to forgive him for something that was no fault of his, while you made up your mind whether his associating with Slytherins was a bigger crime than your associating with him."

Rose spluttered, "That's a lie."

Malfoy glared at her and then challenged, "Well if your memory really is photographic, why don't you simply set that mind of yours racing off four years into the past and observe as an impartial observer?"

He clearly meant it as an insult, but Rose stuck up her nose and simply announced, "I will, thank you very much."

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

It all started when Rose saw Al start muttering, "Not Slytherin, Not Slytherin, Not Slytherin," nonstop under his breath. Though, if she was being truthful, which she seldom was- not that she would admit it- it probably all started when her father said that he would disinherit them if they ended up in Slytherin. But since that would make this flashback even longer that it already was, giving rise to rumours about slow thinking Gryffindors, all of them originating from a certain blonde haired, grey eyed Slytherin, let's say for the sake of convenience that it all started at the sorting when Rose lip-read Al start off his muttering fest as soon as the Hat was put on his head.

She winced in sympathy. James had really scared Al beyond belief. As if any Weasley, even one who had the surname Potter, could ever be in Slytherin. She shot a look at James who was sniggering at the Gryffindor table, along with Fred II. Victoire was smiling encouragingly at Al, not that he could see it since his eyes were squished shut. Louis looked bored, Molly wasn't even paying attention, instead talking to the boy sitting next to her, and Lucy seemed to be off in her own world. Dom was looking at the two older students who had been sorted with them, the Merrits. Rose turned her head to the sorting again, if no one else was going to cheer for Al when he was sorted because they were too busy doing something else, she and Victoire could definitely cheer loud enough for the rest.

But when the Sorting Hat opened its mouth, it turned out that Victoire was the only one who clapped at all, in the entire Hall. It shouted Slytherin, you see. Al made his way to the silent Slytherin table. When he made his way past her, he looked at her pleadingly but Rose did nothing but stare at him, just like the rest of the school. She was too shocked, and then Al turned away with a disappointed look on his face and there was nothing she could say. The rest of the sorting passed in a blur, she only dimly registered her name being called and the only reason she found her way to the right House table was because her family was cheering so wildly. She ate very little, talked very little, and kept stealing glances at Al who was looking miserable. She felt the urge to bawl even though there wasn't enough reason to as her mother would say. But everything was ruined now! She and Al were supposed to be in the same house, eat at the same table and do their homework in the same Common Room. And now, all that was gone just because Al decided to go and be a Slytherin?

Well, she resolved, just because Al had ruined her plans for them together did not mean that she was going to let him ruin her plans for herself. She was going to make lots of new friends, whom her parents would actually approve of, she was going to sit in the Weasley corner of the Gryffindor Common room, she was going to hang out with all of her cousins while they did everything brave possible and if Al wanted to be a snivelling coward along with his other Slytherin friends, well he could do so alone! By the end of this little rant, she was breathing hard and there was a particular brutality to her thoughts. Her Weasley temper was surfacing at being abandoned by her best friend and she was going to do everything to show him how he was not worth the dust beneath her feet.

_THE SECOND FIRST YEAR POTIONS _

Rose stared at the Potions Classroom. It was still in the dungeon but that was all that even faintly resembled the Potions classroom that her parents had used. Instead of being gloomy, it was bright and cheery. Even though she knew that they were in the dungeons, the sunlight streaming in through the high windows seemed real. The seating of the desks seemed to have changed as well. There was the teacher's desk in the front, but after that, the desks that the students were supposed to be using were arranged in a sort of semicircle, ensuring that the Professor could look at everyone and what they were doing. The desks could seat only two, she noticed, but that was okay. They were close enough to each other that talking to someone not sitting at their desk was quite easy.

Alice Longbottom asked, "So, where do you want to sit?"

Despite her resolution to make lots of new friends, she had made only one friend, and she wasn't exactly new since they already knew each other with frequent visits to each other's houses. They weren't very good friends precisely since Rose had always been too busy with Al to actually pay shy Alice much attention, but Hugo, Frank, Alice's younger brother and Lily Potter were best friends, so they were certainly more than mere acquaintances. Hanging around with Alice was easy, Rose was coming to notice. She knew that she had a domineering personality and she had found that dominating Alice was entirely too easy. But, she reasoned, Alice could always go away if she minded.

She looked around the dungeon. Most of the seats were already taken as they had lost their way while on their way to the class. They were sharing classes with the Slytherins but she hadn't really grasped what that meant till she saw Al. he was sitting with a girl that he had been eating breakfast with, she noticed with displeasure. He could have at least kept the seat next to him empty, she thought with indignation, but then remembered that she wasn't talking to him. So she waited till Al caught her eye and then sharply turned around. She noticed that there was an empty pair of seats near where the Malfoy boy was sitting, so she grabbed Alice's hand and marched over there to sit near him. She made sure that she was sitting on his side with their partners on the other sides (they were doing things in pairs). She may be perturbed by what was going on in her personal life but that did not mean that she had forgotten what her father had said,' Make sure you beat him in every test, Rosie.'

What else did that mean than to show that she was better at everything than Scorpius Malfoy?

She opened her textbook, noticing that Malfoy had already opened his own. She read again the instructions on how to make a colour changer for inanimate objects even though she had already memorized the entire page. Professor Mortared had already covered the entire theory in the previous class. He was a firm believer in theory being very important, just like her and her mother. She had a feeling that she was going to like him. She moved to take out her cauldron and all the necessary ingredients. Alice tried to help cutting some of the roots but she instantly stopped her. Instead, she gave her Squareb beans to crush. They were very hard to mess up. She lit the fire beneath the cauldron and made to cut the roots herself but Malfoy chose that moment to interrupt.

"I'm Scorpius Malfoy," he said out of the blue. She said a nonchalant, "I know."

He tried again, "You're Rose Weasley." She hmmed.

He made a frustrated sound before asking in anger, "_Why_ did you sit next to me if you weren't interested in talking?"

She finally looked at him and said scornfully, "My Dad told me to."

He looked a bit shocked at that. He looked like a toad like that, she thought uncharitably. But oh well, not everyone could look good while not feeling god. She turned back to cutting the roots she had been working on all this while but Malfoy spluttered as he asked, "Your _Dad_ asked you to sit by me?"

"Of course not," she said in annoyance. She was starting to dislike him for himself too instead of for just being a Malfoy. "He told me to beat you in everything."

Malfoy gaped at her but she ignored him in favour of cutting her roots in careful slices. She could have easily diced them rapidly, but she believed in precision and that meant slicing carefully so that all the slices were more or less the same size. When she finished, she noticed that there was a little irregularity in them, but looking around, she noticed that her roots were better than anyone else's. At least she had that consolation. It cheered her immensely to see Al sucking his finger as his partner did all the work. She looked at her own partner and realized that she had hogged the entire worktable and that Alice was simply looking around with boredom. She quickly added the roots that she had been cutting in between adding other ingredients, stirred thrice in the anticlockwise direction and then quickly nudged Alice before saying, "Sorry. Do you want to do some of the potion?"

Alice smiled softly before saying, "Yes please."

Since here was only one ingredient left to add, Rose relaxed back and looked at Malfoy's worktable. He was the only one doing any work, she saw with amusement. His partner had leaned his head against the chair and fallen asleep. She sneaked a look at Malfoy's potion and saw that they were both at the same Greyish colour. His potion was good, she noted with reluctance, maybe he would end up making the better potion? No! She shook her head. That would never happen. The footnotes of the book said that this was when most students faced problems. The diced eel eyes were supposed to turn the potion silver, but most often than not, made it give off just a slight luminance.

She sniggered as Malfoy starting crushing the eel eyes. He shot her an annoyed look before returning to what he was doing. She looked at Alice who was cutting their eel eyes. If Malfoy was going to botch the potion, what could she do but let him do so?

_Split!_ She closed her eyes just a second before she saw something fly towards her and then hit its target. It dripped down her cheek but a hand caught it before it could slip down her clothes. She was reluctant to open her eyes. The something had felt very _squishy._ Alice squealed, "I'm so sorry Rose!" she sounded so truly remorseful that she couldn't help believe that she hadn't meant to throw something at her. Especially not what she thought the something was. She opened her eyes to see Alice's hand hovering in the air, a single eel eye staring at her. She barely suppressed the urge to shriek. It wouldn't do to scream in the presence of Malfoy. But she was sure that she would have if it had been anyone else beside her. She somehow managed to say calmly, "It's all right Alice. No harm done." But she couldn't resist wiping her face with her robes the very instant after. Malfoy sniggered as he said, "Very classy, Weasley. Now that I know how you mean to beat me, I must say that I feel quite disappointed. You see, I would never be so stupid as to have eel eyes on my face." And that was when Rose decided that come hell or heaven, she was going to make him eat his words.

Rose hurried to dinner, Malfoy's words ringing in her ears. _Just because you're delusional doesn't mean that the rest of us are._ She hadn't meant to call him a cheater, but when his potion turned out to be better because he used the recipe given in the just released book_ All the Revisions That We Never Knew About-Potion,_ she just couldn't help herself, especially when she herself hadn't read the book because her parents didn't like the author_. _ But she could never have imagined the turn their argument would turn, with him calling her names that she couldn't simply ignore.

_You're just jealous of me that you failed. It's not enough for you to do something good. You have to be the best. _And then finally, _you hypocrite. You think yourself so much better than me simply because you are a Weasley. Well guess what? A Potter's in Slytherin. He betrayed his name just by getting sorted in the wrong house. And the worst part, you're angry because all of us have found the strength to do what we want, regardless of our names. We're friends while you're just a little scaredy cat._

She looked around for Victoire or Lucy. She was sure they would help her but she couldn't see them anywhere. She sat down at an empty table, shoulders bent. She knew that was terrible posture but it reflected what she felt exactly. She wasn't angry with Al because he had done something she hadn't been able to, was she? And surely she wasn't picking at Malfoy because she felt the need to show that she was loyal to her family, because if she didn't belong to her family, who would she belong to? She was feeling so confused and there was no one around to help her.

Just then, someone came and sat down next to her. She looked up, saw Dominique's concerned features. And promptly burst into tears.

She rushed after Al. he was finally alone, but it was nearly curfew and she had a feeling that he was going to the Slytherin Common Room. She had to catch up to him. With a burst of speed, she finally did. And crashed into him, she never had been very coordinated on her feet or on a broom either. She blushed red as Al set her back on her feet. She felt so embarrassed and she just knew that she resembled a beetroot at that moment. _Curse the Weasley genes_.

"Al," she began hesitantly, having absolutely no idea what she was going to say. She hadn't made any sort of plan at all. She had just seen Al and rushed after him. Al sneered at her, something that shocked her. She had never seen that expression cross his face before.

He asked in a similarly unfamiliar, cold voice, "Oh, you're talking to me now, are you?"

It was exactly the wrong thing to do. Rose forgot that she had come to apologise, that she wanted to make amends. Her temper snapped and she said angrily, "Don't you take that tone with me Albus. You know perfectly well that I've not done anything wrong."

"Well forgive me for thinking that not hanging around with your former best-friend is something wrong."

"It's not if it's a _former_ best friend," she pointed out. She was in no mood to listen to him repeat the things that had been going through her own head. So she went on the offensive and said scathingly, "And for your information. It was completely your fault."

"My fault that no one in my family's talking to me? My fault that they won't even meet my eye?"

"Yes," she said cruelly. She ignored the hurt look in his eyes and continued, "You betrayed your name a Potter and you ended up in Slytherin. People get disinherited for less."

"I did _not_ betray my name!" he shouted and then asked in an angry voice, "My father doesn't care. Why do you?"

"Well, does your mother not care too? Because as far as I am aware, _she_ was a Weasley before marrying your father and we Weasleys would rather end up as squibs than be in Slytherins." She could feel that there was a sneer on her face as well now

"Well, it's a good thing that I'm a Potter and not a Weasley then, isn't it? But by the way, I _didn't want_ to be a Slytherin, you know? Hippogriffs know you ought to since that was what I said all month."

"You must have, after all, wasn't it you who said that the Sorting Hat takes your choice in consideration?" she paused; she hadn't thought of that at all before it came rushing out of her mouth. She stared at him suspiciously.

He gave a slightly hysterical laugh before saying, "Well, obviously, it only does that for the great Harry Potter, not the shy, friendless, currently having a row with his best friend, Albus Potter."

She sighed in exasperation. Trust Al to be the only one in the family to not have the Weasley temper. It evidently only came with the red hair, though why Victoire was so tempestuous then, she couldn't understand.

"Couldn't you have had something great in your destiny, Al?" she complained. "At least that way, you won't be in Slytherin. And why on earth is your voice squeaking?"

He shot her a glare before saying in that same squeaky voice, "If you were any sort of friend at all, you would know that my voice does that when I am panicked."

She looked at him in confusion. "But I thought that you grew out of that years ago."

He looked at her disbelievingly, "Of course not! I just stopped panicking."

"You can't do that," she said reasonably. "It's impossible to completely stop panicking. You can only try to calm yourself."

"Yeah well," he tried to say confidently, "I simply started ignoring James." His voice immediately started squeaking as he said in a whimpery voice, "Something that's quite hard to do with him coming towards me with the threat of beating me black and blue still echoing in my ears along with the sickening crack of my wrist breaking that followed."

"You still haven't learnt how to punch people, have you?" she chided him.

"No," he whispered, eyes locked firmly behind her.

She tutted at him then said, "Well, say hello to your not so former best friend as she saves your life, again." And then, with a pointed glance at him, she turned to face James who was coming towards them with a few of his friends along for a more intimidating effect. He really did look like a pansy when he strutted like that, she thought uncharitably.

"Hi James," she said when he came to stand in front of her. She mentally looked him over and categorized his weaknesses as she asked, "What are you doing here?"

He grinned at her as he said, "By the looks of the row that was going on, the same thing as you. I'm here to show the youngest member of our family in Hogwarts that no one screws over the family and gets away with it."

She looked at him with a hopefully charming smile on her face as she asked sweetly, "Can I help?"

He smiled back at her, managing to look impish even though he nearly towered above her. "Of course dear Rosie." He said affably. "You can hold back his arms as we do the rest."

She looked at him, finally letting the anger she felt at him beating up his own brother show in her eyes as she said hotly, "I don't like anyone who calls me Rosie, remember James?" and saying this, she punched him in the face the exact same way that Teddy had taught her. And when James clutched his face, letting out an agonized yell, she moved in for the kill and kneed him right in the groin, just as she had eavesdropped Victoire telling Dom to do if any boy made her really angry.

It worked wonders and she clutched Al's arm as she dragged him away from the corridor, getting away while the going was still good. They could go into their Common Rooms from the Inter House Common room. No need to go the long way. And as she ran away with Al's pants sounding in her eyes, she finally let a smile flit across her face. Her year was finally starting to go the way she had always expected it to go.

_THE NEXT MORNING_

Rose rushed into the Great Hall for breakfast, castigating herself. She was a Gryffindor. She shouldn't be afraid of her own cousin! It was totally ridiculous. Nevertheless, she let out a sigh of relief she hadn't noticed she had been holding when Al noticed her standing next to him and smiled at her. She beamed back. Looked like the age old Weasley formula of having a grand row had worked again!

She said confidently, "I've decided to sit with you from now."

A girl beside them snorted as she said with a smirk, "I wouldn't expect anything else. After all, you _did _hit your cousin yesterday."

Rose glared at her. She was the same girl that Al had eaten breakfast with the previous day. She wasn't sure whether she liked the fact or not, so she asked rudely, "And who are you?"

A superior smirk on her face, the girl said, "The name's Eloisa Flint. You must have heard of it."

"No, can't say I have." Rose lied instantly. She would be damned if she said that she did, though she couldn't understand why. She knew perfectly well that Marcus Flint had been a very famous Quidditch player till he decided to retire after making millions of pounds, which he promptly invested in very profitable schemes. There was no doubt that this Eloisa was the one the newspapers called the Flint heiress.

Flint looked at her dubiously but didn't say anything as Al tugged them both to the buffet. As soon as they had all sat down at an empty table after filling their plates, Rose completely ignored Flint and started telling Al what she had spent a lot of last night thinking, "So, remember all those plans I made for both of us? So I was thinking and I realised that there was no reason at all why they can't go on as they were meant to. We can still eat at the same table; do our homework in the same Common Room."

And it was true. Like Dominique had said, there weren't any House tables except on important occasions like the Sorting and the End of Term. And there was an Inter House Common Room that was meant especially for friends who were sorted in different Houses. Why not take advantage of them? Feeling happy at the thought that she could still share so many important things with her best friend, she even said in a conspiratorial voice, "And I can even let you know what the Password for the Gryffindor Common Room is."

Al laughed a little at her excitement but didn't get the chance to say anything as just then, a drawling voice cut in with a, "Is the offer open to all of us or just your relatives?"

Rose looked at Malfoy inn shock and then growing anger as he proceeded to sit at their table as if he belonged there. She looked at Al accusingly as she asked, "What is _he_ doing here?"

Al gave an uncomfortable smile as he said, "Rose, this is Scorpius, and Scorpius, this is my cousin Rose."

"I know" both Malfoy and she said, the horror of horrors. And then she added, "It was horrible."

"We met in Potions. Mine was better than hers." Malfoy told Al confidingly.

Rose said sullenly, "Don't be silly. He used different instructions." And then, in a bid to get some sympathy at least, she asked Al pleadingly, 'That's cheating, isn't it?"

And Al, the traitor, laughed before saying, "Now Rose, you know that if I had been raised by your mother, I might think that, but since my Dad was the one who once got better marks than your Mom an entire year just because he used different instructions."

Malfoy grinned mischievously as he said, "Now Weasley, surely you aren't going to call the famous war hero Harry Potter a cheater."

"Of course not!" Rose snapped. "He's my uncle, you know!" and then refusing to get off the original subject, she asked again, just this time from the actual person, "What are you doing here?"

"Having breakfast, you?"

Rose refused to let his wittiness stand. So she asked starkly, "What I meant was why you are hanging around my cousin when you are the one who said that he had betrayed his name?"

Malfoy stared at her as if asking whether she was seriously going to do this right now, then he said wittily, "I'm sitting with a Potter and a Weasley. I'm betraying my name too. Just thought that we'd be two peas in a pod."

"How do you know Muggle sayings?" Rose asked suspiciously.

Evidently Malfoy's fuse was short as he snapped at her, "That's what happens when your mother's a healer at St. Mungo's."

Rose was quite ready with a retort, she really was, but then Al swiftly cut in with a, "Yeah well, I'm not angry with him."

"Why?" she asked, insulted on behalf of her cousin.

He smiled at her softly before saying, "Because that's what made you talk to me."

"No. it wasn't. it was Dominique actually." Rose said softly, just to be perverse. And then she turned to Malfoy and shot him a glare as she warned him, "If you even dare to think of hurting Al, I'm going to do something so awful to you that you'll regret your entire life forever."

"Yeah right, "Malfoy sneered at her. "For that, you'll have to catch me first and as you've proved Slow Pokes, I'm faster than you."

Rose let out an affronted what, to which he responded, "I've already finished my breakfast while you've not even started yours. Bye Potter. Bye Weasley."

Saying this, he picked up his squeaky clean plate, walked off to deposit it in the dirty dishes section and left the hall itself. Looking down, Rose glared at her own full plate before standing up and saying, "Sitting with Malfoy has ruined my appetite." She stood up, thought about leaving her food there, but since she was feeling so hungry, regretfully stuffed two omelettes between slices of toast before walking off. She wasn't very quick though, which was why she heard Flint say sarcastically, "Bye guys, just simply ignore me. I'm just an empty pillar eating breakfast with you."

Al said apologetically, "Sorry. I don't think they rally registered you." Rose felt like sniggering but since that would have ruined her graceful exit, she refrained and heard Flint snap, "That's not really comforting, you know Potter."

Al tried to console her by saying something so silly that Rose could have simply told him to spare the effort, "Well, if it makes you feel any better, I don't think that they really registered anyone except themselves, you know."

Flint sighed resignedly, "No, it doesn't, but you know what, at least you were the topic of their discussion."

Rose quickly walked off, munching on her breakfast and perfecting her plan of taking revenge on Malfoy for making fun of her and being an all-round git. She smiled with pleasure as she went through it. It was a simple enough plan, which increased the chances of it working to near perfection. James and Fred had done their job and she didn't think for one instant that they had said it just to get her off her back. They were the type of boys who would gleefully do anything except their studies. Normally she would frown at it but since they were doing it for her, she felt bad about doing it at their latest attempt to postpone doing their work.

She turned around the corridor and instantly moved backwards so that she was hidden behind the bend in the corridor. Peering around it, she looked at the shelf like structure below one of the high windows that covered the entire corridor's left wall and saw that yes, all was as it should be. Then she leaned against the wall, hoping that she looked convincing enough like a student just rummaging through her bag to look for something as she settled in to wait for Malfoy to pass through the corridor. She didn't have to wait long. He walked past her with one of his housemates, none of them even registering her presence. It helped of course, that she had turned around and bent her shoulders to hide her face. As soon as they were gone, Rose stood up straight and peered around the bend in the wall to see Malfoy making his way across the corridor with his friend. Perfect!

She waited with narrowed eyes, waiting till the last possible moment before using the spell she had used three hours practicing last night, on the bucket that Fred and James had placed on the shelf, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The bucket slowly started floating, tilting somewhat to the side as it slowly rotated. Rose concentrated on making the tilting stop, and it worked! Of course, the downside was that it started rotating faster, though nowhere near fast enough to start flinging its contents out. She waited breathlessly for the perfect moment, watching Malfoy make his way unsuspectingly down the corridor till he was nearly directly below the bucket. And then she swished her wand, making the bucket upend and drop its contents all over Malfoy.

She stopped the laughter that was threatening to burst out of her as there were cries of shock all around. Malfoy looked ridiculous, crushed eel eyes that she had a feeling were stolen from the Potions cupboard splattered all over him. She watched wide-eyed as one eel slid its way down his hair and directly into his collar, no doubt slipping right down his back. His shriek seemed to imply this as he started hopping around, desperately trying to reach his back, finally deciding to fling open his robes, unbutton his shirt and grabbing the eel eye. Rose watched, aware that she was beaming, as Malfoy stared at his hand in disgust and then flung the eye away.

By the way he ran away, she could almost believe that it was human eyes that he had been attacked with. She made her way around the corridor, smiling widely, but then regretted it as Malfoy threw one last backward glance as he sped away, catching sight of her, and no doubt the wand that she realized that she was still clutching in her hand. As he disappeared from view, she briefly wondered what he would do for retaliation, but then remembered the sight of Malfoy covered in his favourite Potions ingredient, his neck red from the blush he no doubt sported, and burst into laughter, clutching her stomach. She thought, 'No matter what happens, this will be worth it'.

_BACK TO THE PRESENT, JUST A FEW MINUTES PAST_

Scorpius stared as Weasley's eyes focused on him again, the _thinking of something else_ expression that she had been sporting for the past few minutes disappearing. He asked sarcastically, "Done already?"  
She sat up straight and nodded wistfully. He sat up at once as he realised that her sitting up put him at a disadvantage. He had to have the nemesis who could go through a memory in about four minutes, didn't he? It was beyond irritating, he thought. It was downright impressive. Whenever he went down memory lane, he came back to the present with several hours missing, and here was Weasley, not even missing a full five minutes. He looked down at his watch, but unfortunately, his sense of time was impeccable as always, and five minutes hadn't passed. He glared at her. She just had to be best at everything. And what was with her looking so wistful, as if she missed those days? If he was right, and he usually was at these matters, Weasley had no doubt used the considerable brains inherited from her mother to have a flashback at when she had played the first prank on him. Her words proved him correct.

She asked, "Do you remember how I forgot to put down the bucket after I was done with it, I was laughing so hard, and when the spell finally ended on its own, it landed on the Head Girl, who promptly gave me my first detention? Even Fred and James waited longer than that."

He _hadn't_ known that but it was comforting and he had the nearly undeniable urge to say something very witty and cutting. But since their last argument and its results were still vivid in his mind, sitting at the scene of the crime as they were, he tried to keep the peace and said, "Bad luck."

She sent him a mischievous look and said with laughter in her voice, "Do try to actually mean it when you say something so patently false. It totally spoils the look if you can't even lie convincingly."

She looked entirely too happy for his tastes. It seemed as if even remembering the nasty things that she had done to him put her in a good mood. So he said, "So, who _did_ start our fight?"

The happiness instantly disappeared and she frowned while saying, "As much as I hate to say this, it seems as if I did indeed start our fight." She sounded like a little girl who had been denied a treat. Very adorable. _Not_.

He couldn't help the smirk that appeared on his face, though admittedly, he didn't try that hard. He was always right about these matters. He rose up; thankful that his legs at least didn't betray him as his arms has done just a short while ago. He debated on offering his hand to Weasley to get up but then thought, 'Oh no. we went through a near death experience today. No need to get clingy. So he instead just smirked at her and turned to walk away. As much as he liked the sullen expression on her face, he didn't like it enough to keep him out of bed.

**A/N: I did the entire document on my own and so there may be many grammatical mistakes, so sorry. i just made sure that there weren't any red or green lines in my Microsoft document. if any new readers are reading this story, and there ought to be, please review. the review need not be of this chapter even. and to all those 354 viewers who have already read the story, _please review._ I'd like to know what you like and what you don't. for all those who want to know how Rose and Scorpius got here, that's the next chapter. this chapter's quite long, about 6666 words, so I wrote an equally long note at the end. and if you have any specific wishes or ideas of how they ended up there, though there definitely was an argument, just tell me. or write it in the reviews or simply PM me. **

**bye!  
**


	4. Chapter 4 i'm a freaked out freak

Disclaimer:Look at the other chapters please

**A/N: this is my longest chapter yet and I don't know how good it is. so tired that i can't even check it all over. if you find mistakes, just tell me and i'll correct them. thank you(insert bow)**

Chapter 3

Where Al astounds us with his mental astuteness much to our surprise.

Al paced nervously in the common room, his mind flying through ideas, each more worrisome than the previous. He looked at the wristwatch that had been one of the gifts he had received from his family for becoming Quidditch Captain in his fifth year itself. James of course, hadn't bothered to give him anything, stating that it was due to his stepping down from the post that had enabled Al to get the batch in the first place. As if that had anything to do with anything, especially since he was Slytherin team captain and his brother had been Gryffindor team of course, when everyone had asked why he had done so, he had calmly stated that he was Head Boy. _Thunder stealer!_ Al though ruefully, remembering it all as he watched the hour hand. His relationship with his brother was quite cordial, but it would never reach the bond that they both shared with their male cousins, or even their female ones. James would always get on better with Fred, Louis and Molly than Al, just as he would always get on better with Rose and Louis, and at a stretch, even Lucy, Fred and Hugo.

He looked at the fireplace with a sigh, watching how the fire had nearly burnt itself down and yet the common room door had gotten no closer to opening. If this was how he was going to spend his nights every time Scorp and Rose were on patrol together, he would really have to go and request from his brother that they got the 4 to 5o'clock shift. At least he would be able to get up and do his homework with a fresh mind, or as he thought more likely, spend the entire hour worrying and then copying from one of his much smarter friends. He sighed again as the minute hand moved further down the face of the watch and yet there was no sign of Scorp. Surely James would hate the idea of a Double Midnight Homicide as much as he did. He could even imagine the headlines. _THE FIRST CASUALTIES OF THE MALFOY-WEASLEY WAR OF THIS GENERATION._

He really ought to go and become a writer after graduation, he scolded himself. _As if anything so sensational could happen_ at Hogwarts of all places. But then he remembered the banner that always hung over the teacher's table with the names of all those who had fallen in the Battle of Hogwarts. No one had expected that either.

He shook his head, ridiculing his thoughts. _As if!_ The most that could happen was that one of them would push the other off the stairs or something. A few broken bones at the most. But then he remembered Scorp saying something like looking for his body at the bottom of the tower if he didn't return in time for breakfast, a part of his daily routine that he never skipped_. At that time, he had thought that it was a joke, but now, he wasn't so sure. _

His breathing speeded up a little as adrenaline started to flow. With thoughts of accidental pushes, double concussions and bodies littering the bottom of the Astronomy Tower, the only tower with any prospects for pushing people off without causing a ruckus fit to wake up the dead, Al went to pick up from his dormitory the cloak that his father had given him just that summer, along with the request that he wouldn't use it to sneak into any Bathrooms, whatever that meant.

"Just why exactly am _I _out of bed in the middle of the night just because _you_ think that two Prefects have gone missing while on patrol?" a polite, invisible voice next to him asked.

Al had always known that Eloise Flint was a light sleeper. What he hadn't known that the rest of the girls in her dormitory were such heavy sleepers that when he shouted for her to come down, no one except for her would respond. He had tried to climb the stairs of the girls' dormitory, before remembering that boys couldn't do it when he landed with a thud, right on his bum. It hurt, which might explain why his voice was extra loud when he called for her. And when she came down with a surly expression on her face and proceeded to explain to him in detail exactly why he was a namby-pamby idiot with gruel for brains, never would he have imagined that she would laugh at his suppositions. Evidently, that was what Scorp always said whenever he was off with a girl, an increasingly frequent occurrence since last year. Al knew that too, which he said while defending himself, after which Eloise had given him a sweet smile that promised retribution were he to go against what she said, that then there surely couldn't be any problem with her retiring back to bed. To which he had asininely replied by asking exactly who used the word 'retiring' anymore. It hadn't gone well at all, which the slight lump on his forehead that was steadily swelling its way to epic proportions could guarantee. It had gone worse when he had tried to bundle her under his Dad's invisibility cloak so he wouldn't have to break the rules all on his own.

He had a phobia of teachers looking so disappointedly at him as if he had killed their pet kitten, something everyone he knew deplored and tried to cure him of. He didn't appreciate at all having his first attempt at rule breaking (under his own volition at least, as opposed to being dragged kicking and screaming-metaphorically of course- with his hands and feet bound-not so metaphorically) being bashed to the ground for being entirely too dirty. And that was by a girl who had once willingly drenched herself with marsh bog from Weasley Wizard Wheezes, just to get someone else in trouble. And what was she calling dirty, he had asked in affront. He was perfectly clean, thank you!

To which she had had replied with a wrinkled nose, "Your _cloak_." And then with a sigh at the decidedly mulish expression that he knew he was sporting on his face, she had gone to her dormitory after telling him to wait, returning with _her own invisibility cloak_. Which was why there was currently an invisible voice asking questions in his ear.

It was the only way they would know where the other was since she had flatly refused to get dirty so early in the morning (it was two in the morning when Scorp and Rose had patrolling duty for ten to twelve only) and he had adamantly refused to get out from under the cloak his dad had worn while he was battling and defeating Lord Voldemort. Eloise had looked pityingly at him before saying, "That was the cloak he was _hiding under_ so Voldemort wouldn't know he was alive." The unspoken words were 'there was no battling with this cloak on. There are eyewitness accounts of the duel'. However, she had stopped badgering him to get under her cloak and had maintained the silence while they searched the areas where Rose and Scorpius were supposed to be almost two hours ago with only occasional directions being imparted by either one of them. Till now, that is.

"Because those Prefects happen to be our friends and being a devoted friend yourself, you are worried about them." Al whispered back, looking in the direction that he thought that Eloise was standing. They had reached a turning in the corridor by then and conversation paused as they heard light footsteps. Al waited breathlessly for the person making those sounds to appear, but instead of coming closer, the footsteps seemed to be moving further away. When they had disappeared completely, he took in a deep breath, feeling lightheaded from the lack of oxygen. There was a reason he hated to break rules. It clearly wasn't good for his health. His heart was beating too fast, his skin felt too clammy and the hand holding his wand was shaking. Eloise however seemed to be affected by none of these things for when she spoke next; her voice was filled with nothing except exasperation and a little irritation maybe.

"What in the name of Merlin do you think is going to happen to them? Do you honestly think that they're going to take the first chance they get to be alone to try and _off the other?_"

When she said it like that, he did feel like an absolute fool but he still persevered, trying to make her understand exactly why he was so worried. He knew that no one, least of all Rose and Scorpius worried much about their regular fights, most of which had moved into sneaky pranks and classroom battles after the first few howlers they had both received from home. But, he didn't know why, he still shivered whenever he thought of them taking out their irritation at the other's continued survival on each other. Ever since that fateful first year, he had always had a cold knot in his chest that tightened whenever he thought of any of his friends, his chosen family that acted so strong and yet was so fragile, in any sort of fight, however inconsequential and risk free it was. Just like Rose had been touched by all the happenings so fleetingly, it felt as if he had taken all the fear, anger and worry that was hers inside him. He didn't resent it, Merlin knew he wanted to keep her happy and safe, she was his responsibility while at Hogwarts, just feared that something real would happen, _again._

He knew however that being so serious would only scare Eloise, so he said in a deliberately sarcastic voice, "Rose didn't try to give Scorp tentacles, did she? And nor did Scorp try to vanish the muscles in her leg. Surprising how it all seemed to happen nevertheless."

If he had been able to see Eloise, he was sure that he would have found her to be grinning at him, or if not_ at him_, then definitely in front of her. He knew her really well after all. They made their way around most of the corridors that Rose and Scorp were supposed to patrol and nearly got caught by Prefects more than enough times. Al was finally thinking about asking one of them whether they had seen any of his friends when Eloise whispered, "Let's go check the Astronomy Tower, Rose said something about how the only person she was interested in being alone on the Astronomy Tower with was already partnered with someone else."

The Astronomy Tower was famous for being the number one spot for romantic rendezvous though why he couldn't really understand. He had always found the Tower to be chilly, especially in the night which was the only time they were supposed to be on it, when they had their lessons. Not to mention, if anyone went too near the fancy railings, what if they were to fall? There were bars all around the roof, with a slab running over it. It was fashionable to sit on this slab, even though it only came to about knee high. He had heard that there had been a more solid wall around the Roof earlier, but that ever since Professor Sinistra had been to that vacation in America, she had badgered Professor Flitwick till he agreed to let her have her way, as long as there weren't any accidents. There had been many, since this was Hogwarts and there was no such thing as a safe year here, but Al was fond of the new railing as he liked sitting on the slab as well. He had never been afraid of heights, it would have been silly to when he was the Slytherin Seeker, and he really liked looking down at the ground from between his legs. His mother hadn't been too fond of that idea, however and he still remembered the scold he had received after he fell and broke two of his ribs, his elbow and wrist_ and_ dislocated his leg. There had been talks of permanent disablement, but nothing like that had happened since he had tried the slush spell that he had seen Merrit perform. It hadn't really worked, obvious since he had so many broken bones, but he had refrained from breaking his neck, so that was something at least.

Images of his own Fall of Fear (as it had somehow ended up being termed) vivid in his mind, he nearly ran to the tower, only the thought that he didn't want detention keeping him prudent enough to not make an awful rattle. _He was in Slytherin after all. Nothing was worth getting detention for._

He could hear Eloise's steps behind him as she hurried after him but he didn't bother to moderate his pace. The faster it was over, the better. He had a craving for some chocolate frogs. He had just reached the foot of the tower when Scorp came out. Al stared. Scorp had clearly come down the stairs and since his body was not littering the bottom of the tower, he could feel anger begin to fill him. It was surprising how all the worry and irritation he had been feeling morphed so quickly into anger and the desire to shout at Scorpius, _to hit him_. That is to say, it would have been surprising if he had been thinking about it, which he wasn't because he was too busy clenching his fists and keeping them close to his body, something that was really hard since they seemed to want to move on their own towards the boy standing in front of him, itching to pummel him to the ground.

In a voice with barely repressed anger he asked, "Still alive? No broken bones? No torn ligaments? No impending concussions? No?"

He managed to keep his voice nearly even through this sarcastic dialogue but then Scorpius smirked and it all flew loose. "THEN WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU STILL HERE? You're supposed to be in a broom cupboard or abandoned classroom somewhere, not whiling away your hours on top of the tower you told me to look for your body under!"

Scorpius smirked, a pleased expression on his face. "Didn't know you were waiting up for me, Potter."

"I wasn't." Al told him savagely. "I was waiting so that I could beat your sorry ass to hell and back."

And saying this, somehow, his fist flew towards the almost perfectly illuminated by the moon face that seemed to look slightly silver. For a moment, there was a smirk on the face. Then his fist impacted, in the correct posture, right into the pointed nose. It seemed to happen in slow motion, the nose twisting impossibly to the side, the eruption of blood, the pale, long fingered hand that flew to clutch the nose in a futile attempt to make it stop bleeding. But then time rushed back to its proper place as after ascertaining that his nose was still up there, Scorpius flew at Al, pushing him to the ground and slamming a fist into his stomach. It hurt, so he hit him with his knee and pushed him off. Scorpius flew to the side, somehow managing to knock his elbow into his ribs.

By the time two pairs of arms managed to separate them, Al could feel blood trickling down his chin from the split lip he had somehow acquired. His chest ached, and he would probably limp for a few days, but nothing seemed broken. Except his glasses. He wiped off the blood and hoped that it wouldn't start bleeding again and then pushed off the arms that still had a hold on him. It seemed for a moment that whoever was holding onto him was going to resist, but when she, for it was undeniably a female, seemed to notice the direction of his gaze, she let go and he scrambled to his knees, trying to collect at many glass pieces as possible so that he could repair his glasses. He took care to not cut his fingers. He could do without any more cuts and bruises. All the caution in the world couldn't protect one from Rose Weasley though, something he got another lesson in when she screamed at him, "Bloody Murder Albus! What were you thinking? That since I didn't manage to break all of Malfoy's bones, YOU WOULD DO IT FOR ME? WHAT SORT OF _IDIOT_ ARE YOU?"

He winced as he looked up to see Rose glaring at him. She looked like a miniature of his grandmother, what with those heaving breaths, red face, angry expression and let's not forget those hands placed on her hips that made him feel as if he was the three year old everyone told him he was who took one fistful of mashed banana in his fist and got lectured by his already talkative cousin for daring to take her bananas, even though she didn't like them. It was an awful feeling to have that look focused on him and he was thankful when Scorp spoke up, diverting attention to himself. He really didn't think that saying that he punched _Malfoy_ because he felt like it was going to go over very well with Rose. Just because she spent most of her time plotting ways to make Scorp's life hell didn't mean anyone else could. Evidently, surname changes meant that he didn't have any legitimate reason to pick on him.

So he sent a grateful look at Scorp when he said, "Hey Weasley!"

Rose turned to look at him with a frown on her face and she asked brusquely, "What ferret face?"

He smiled sarcastically at her as he said, "Well weasel head, as much as I like you standing up for me, I don't really want you to, you know?"

If anything, Rose's frown became even more ferocious than before, if of course, that was possible.

She asked him rudely, "Well, what makes you think that I'd stand up for a rat nose like you? I was being the perfect prefect that I am, as opposed to certain abysmal prefects abounding the place, who go around jumping willy-nilly into fights all the time."

Scorpius smirked as he said, "Because , of course, stealing a fellow prefect's wand and throwing it, as well as the fellow Prefect in question OFF THE ASTRONOMY TOWER IS SOMETHING PERFECT TO DO?"

"It is when the fellow prefect keeps on poking the prefect who is the epitome of perfection in decidedly sensitive parts of her body till she has no choice at all but to go off the roof of the tower in question, flipping right over those totally _useless _bars of cement called _railings!"_ Rose defended herself.

"Well maybe the completely justified fellow prefect wouldn't have felt the need to do any sort of poking in any sort of sensitive parts of the body of the epitome of absurdity that considers herself everything that's good if she hadn't kept on mooning about a certain older Prefect and proposing that _the totally blameless prefect_ beside her due to _no fault of his own_, take on a bloody _human bludger_ by stealing his girlfriend just because she considers him beholden to her in some way because he's friends with her cousin!"

"Well maybe, if the spineless piece of shit hadn't gone over behaving like a slut all over the place, the completely vindicated model of propriety wouldn't have felt it to be completely up his line of work _to go around stealing the girlfriends of so-called human bludgers!"_

Al stared at them both. Forget about sending grateful glances at Scorpius and penitent ones at Rose. What he should do was sit down with a big bowl full of that muggle delicacy popcorn that he was addicted to and watch the melodrama that was going on in front of him, right in front of the Astronomy Tower. _It was unbelievable!_ Indeed, he might even have the time to go to the kitchens to beg a bowl of popcorn if he ran triple speed all the way to the kitchens and back and if the house elves already had some handy. Better not risk it, he though with regret. With Rose and Scorpius around, there was no guarantee to anything at all. But this was how he liked his family. All in front of him, exhausting their energy in completely harmless verbal arguments. Speaking of family, he looked around for Eloise. He didn't have to look around much since he saw her almost immediately, sidling up to him. She whispered in his ear, why he didn't know. It wasn't as if the two mad people in front of him would even notice some Fiendfyre unless it was set by one of them.

"You know that I like you cousin, right?"

he nodded, unsure about where this was going, but then decided to say a verbal yes, noticing that the moon had gone behind those ever present bits of clouds that filled the sky most of the time in Scotland.

She asked again, "And you know that I like Scorpius, right?"

He again said yes.

She was starting to look irritated he noticed as the moon came out again from behind the clouds, but she made an effort to control her face before saying, "then you should know that while I like both of them individually and think of them as fine, upstanding individuals of the society, I still wish that that first day I spent at Hogwarts, I didn't even look twice at you."

"Yes?" he said with a wince, except it came out sounding like a question.

Eloise narrowed her eyes at him and pursed her lips before asking pointedly, "Would you just stop with the yeses already?"

"Fine," he said hesitantly. She huffed at him before turning to look at Rose and Scorpius again. Al looked at them as well, noticing with displeasure that they had imply resorted to slinging names like the wart ass of a flobberworm, the nail bitings of naked mole rats, one brain-celled Cyclops, slug slinger and things like that. He preferred it much more when the argument going on actually focused on true facts and not things like how Scorp resembled a ferret (he didn't. uncle Ron just told them about the time Mr Malfoy had been turned into a bouncing ferret by one of their Professors) and how Rose's hair looked like it was the nesting place of half a dozen hungry hippogriffs and made everyone wish to wish to vomit up things just so they could think of something less disgusting (it didn't, evidently, Scorpius' father had told him about the time uncle Ron had somehow cursed himself to vomit slugs).

Al thought about going to stop the two of them and when Eloise nudged him, he thought that was thinking about the same thing. But, she said, "Could you make out anything at all from the… _convoluted _things they said about why exactly they were still on top of the Astronomy Tower? Unless, of course," she squealed happily. "They were doing what everyone else in mixed company without the presence of a professor does there. _Kissing!_"

Al snorted derisively. "As if either Scorp or Rose would ever _kiss _anyone! They're more likely to be caught snogging their faces off."

She looked at him sternly and chided him, irritated, "Albus Severus Potter. Do not use te word _snog_ like that. You make it sound cheap."

"Snogging's not cheap when it's completely true. And anyway, Scorp wouldn't be caught dead _kissing_ anyone!" Al protested, not understanding why in the name of Merlin's baggy trousers was he arguing the semantics of their best friends kissing each other with Eloise, especially when the said best friends were currently more likely to charm each other's heads off.

Eloise, if she knew the answer to that question, or even felt that there was a question in fact, argued hotly, "Of course Scorp can he's what they call debonair, for a flare for the niceties of life. It's Rose who could never control herself enough to make anything a mere, sweet kiss! She's more likely to bite the boy's tongue off."

"Do you mean to say that my cousin's a slut?" Al demanded hotly, knowing that there was nothing like that implied, what with the whole biting boys' tongues out comment, but what the hell else did she mean by saying that Rose didn't have self-control?

Eloise sent him a disgusted look before saying, "Of course not. I just meant that Rose, for a lack of better words, simply can't control her emotions." Simultaneously, their eyes went to the couple who were, at last count, hotly debating the semantics of each other's brains, only to find them in the ground, but doing nothing like what they were discussing. The fist clutched in blonde hair that was shining silver in the moonlight and the clawed fingers busy scratching the gold jumper might have been confusable, except that the little grunts of pain that kept periodically escaping the participants' mouths as they tried their level best to bash the other's head into the ground were a dead giveaway.

Eloise looked at him pointedly before saying in a put upon tone, "You Weasleys, you have to admit, are a rather earthly people. Just look at James."

James, Al knew, was a slag, though admittedly, not one who deliberately went around breaking girls' hearts. However, he hated the fact that there could be any similarity between him and James. James was a good enough person as long as you didn't have to spend an entire day with him without him being on his best behaviour. So he huffed and puffed, trying to think up of ways to let Eloise know that he didn't like being compared to that slacker off who had somehow managed to become Head Boy, _and_ known of it before the summer holidays, but failing to do that, he finally said, "Fine! If that's how you're going to be, then I won't tell you what they were doing!"

Eloise sent him a suspicious look before saying, "I f you truly know what they were doing then I guess that I can refrain from saying any such thing."

He snorted. "That may be how debutantes apologise but we Potters require something more concrete."

She looked extremely angry but she somehow managed to mutter just loudly enough to be audible, "Sorry."

Al debated about whether or not to accept such a clearly grudgingly given apology, but decoded to do so. Right then Eloise might be behaving contritely (she was when compared to her previous crime record) but she was a Slytherin first and foremost and that meant she was crafty enough to get back at him for even daring to think of making her grovel. So he said, "That's all right."

Eloise still looked mutinous but she asked all the same, "So what do you think happened?"

Al looked at her in confusion then realised that he had said that he had threatened to not tell her about what had happened, which meant _that he must know what had happened!_ He wasn't interested in gossiping about what members of the opposite sex did while together, alone, nor what things had happened in the past, unless of course, it included, though not exclusively, Quidditch. All of which meant only one thing. That he really didn't have a clue as to what to say now. Oh well, he could always follow the Potter creed that James had developed. When in doubt, bullshit your way out of it. So he set his brain to thinking on full speed, trying to think up what had happened from the few clues that were hidden in Rose and Scorpius' comments to each other, all the while keeping a supercilious smirk on his face, as to look as if he was simply letting her stew on it a little bit.

He started hesitantly, trying to pass of the halts as dramatic pauses as opposed to I-don't-know-what-I'm-talking-about-and-am-making-it-all-up-as-I-go-pauses, "Well, if you were paying attention, you'll know that our very dear Rosie posy fancies a certain Ravenclaw Beater known as Clement Davies." She did nothing of the sort as far as he knew. Clement Davies was the only one he could think of who was a Prefect, in the sixth or seventh year, had a girlfriend, _and_ had the build and temper of a bludger. At least Eloise wasn't saying _bullshit_ to it. She could be really scary when she felt like it.

He continued quickly when he saw her eyes narrow a little again as he paused for a bit too long, "Well, you know that James chose the partners really deliberately, right?" Knowing James, it was nothing like that and it was all Lucy's doing. Still, somehow, Eloise had never really got it on with Lucy Weasley and now was not the time to be rubbing it in.

"Well, if you ask me, Rose _really _wanted to be partners with Davies."

She looked confused and then sent him an arch glance, "Don't be _ridiculous_! Everyone knows that you get partnered with someone of your year unless there's some sort of drama going on with everyone else."

Al paused, dumbstruck. What was he supposed to say to that? He really ought to start thinking before speaking. He hemmed and hawed before finally mumbling, "You said it yourself. Rose's kinda emotional and sentimental."

Eloise looked at him as if he had gone crazy and then said, "You, Albus Severus Potter are an idiot."

He managed a sickly grin before saying in a rush, hoping to stop her blowing up more holes in the story, that was, for all intents and purposes, something that existed solely in his own mind, "Well, then she asked Scorpius to get it on with his fifth year girlfriend and he automatically refused and then they got into a fight and Scorp poked her, and they were on top of the Astronomy Tower and she flipped and fell, and he probably gave his hand to her, or maybe pointed his wand at her and she clutch both the wand and him, and he flipped and fell and then they were both hanging and they somehow got themselves off and then they came here, only we were here already, so…"he petered out.

Eloise was looking at him as if he had just told her that he was the direct progeny of Ulfric the Unclean. Finally she said, "You _really _don't believe that, do you?"

He defended himself, feeling quite offended that she didn't believe his hypothesis, even though he really didn't it himself, "It could be true!"

"No it couldn't." She said confidently.

He waved his arms around, trying to show her that it _was _in fact, true. He felt quite fond of his idea, now that it was all out. He said, "You know how _enthusiastic_ Rose can be when it's about either who Boadicea the Badass is really dating and about one of _those_ plans of hers that are plain weird."

He continued enthusiastically himself, almost convincing himself that what he was saying was true, "And you know how _mean_ Scorp can be, especially when he's off on one of his alliterative moods. He probably scolded her for her stupid schemes, all the while poking her somewhere that she really tickles. He really is _awful_ when he's like that you know."

Eloise seemed amused as she said, "The alliterative Arithmancer is he?"

"Yeah!" Al agreed. "That's exactly what he'd call himself."

He paused then, taking in what she had said and not just the fact that the first letters of both the words were the same. He asked in confusion, "I though Scorp doesn't like Arithmancy?"

"Don't be silly! Course he does." She assured him.

"No he doesn't," he argued. "He only took the subject in the first place because Rose was going to take it and she'd only lord it over him if he didn't."

She shook her head in pity at him before saying, "You fool. Scorp actually happens to love the subject, weird inbred spawn that he is, while the only reason Rose still has Arithmancy is because it's either that or have even fewer OWLs than before." That was true, he thought. Rose had a phobia of underperforming and the fact that she wasn't taking Divination was like a sore thumb. Not acceptable and yet there was nothing she could do about it.

But he still wasn't convinced. After all, wasn't _he_ Scorp's best friend? So he did the only thing that he could think of to do.

Eloise Flint looked on with a smirk on her face as she watched Al Potter stride over to his two best friends, remove the death grip they had on each other's hair and lift Scorpius to his feet before asking him with no foreplay at all, "You don't like Arithmancy, right? You only took it because Rose was taking it right?"

Scorpius brushed himself off before asking peremptorily, "Why would you even think that? Of course I like it. And what do you mean by saying that I only took it because Weasley was taking it? As if I'd voluntarily want to spend time with her."

Eloise smirked as Al turned to her. She couldn't help it. As if there would be any other answer forthcoming even if he didn't feel that way. Al knew that too, she knew, which might explain why he looked as if daring her to say something as he said, "You know he won't say anything while Rose's still here. "

"And why might that mean that his answer would be any different when she isn't here?" she asked him as if talking to a particularly dim toddler. He hated that, she knew, the way everyone seemed to ignore him in favour of others. James was James, the Quidditch star, the Head Boy, the ladies' man, the ultimate prankster. And Lily was lily, the smallest Potter, the one who was her parent's little girl, who could bat her eyelashes whenever she wanted something and get it the next instant. Compared to that, Al was nothing and he hated that. And whoever said that pressing the nerves of friends was wrong had never been in Slytherin. There was nearly nothing as good as watching Al go red then purple as he tried to curb his tongue and she really could have done with a linger show but Al took a deep breath before saying in a carefully controlled tone of voice, "Why don't we all head to the Inter-House Common Room? I don't know about you but I'm really tired."

Rose jumped in with a, "Yes! Me too!" Coward. No doubt she didn't want to face anyone that night. Because really, the fact that Rose and Scorpius spent nearly an hour at least on top of the Astronomy Tower and nothing happened except something no doubt risky, though nothing as risky as Al made it sound, seemed a bit fishy. Yes, they seemed to always be at each other's throat but really, who paid that much attention to someone they allegedly disliked?

But whatever that was, she let Rose make her dignified retreat. And then Rose tripped, fell, caught hold of Scorpius' (who was nearest to her) sweater, nearly strangled him as he tried to keep both of them upright and finally propped down on her bum with him face first in her lap.

Al started snickering as she herself hid a grin behind her hand. If there had been enough light, she was sure that both Rose and Scorpius would have been visibly blushing like beetroots. As it was, she could nearly feel the heat emanating from Scorpius' cheeks as he got up, snarling at her in embarrassment, "Couldn't you, for once Weasley, keep your hands to yourself and your feet on the ground?"

"I wasn't the one face first in someone's lap, Malfoy," Rose retorted.

Before it escalated into something more, she went ahead and caught Scorpius' arm, slinging her arm through his, and proceeding to drag him away, elegantly of course. She felt Scorpius turn to no doubt throw a dirty or possibly angry glance at Rose but he didn't try to stop her from taking him away towards the Slytherin Common Room. There was a short cut that led directly to the dungeons and it was nearer than the Inter House Common Room. And, more to the point, she was sure that Al was dying to talk to Rose and find out what had happened. She had noticed that about him. He hated any of his family, with James being the only exception maybe, being in any sort of trouble, but he really hated his year and the younger cousins to get in any sort of fight without him being there to cheer them on, and for the really younger ones, fuss over them after they got beaten up really bad. It didn't really seem to bother him as bad if they managed to break their bones (Hugo) if he was there when it happened as when they managed to get a bruise (Lily) when he wasn't.

"Albus Severus Potter, if you think that just because we're best friends as well as cousins, I'm not going to punish you for being out of bounds, you are sadly mistaken."

They were in the Inter House Common Room, which always had a fire burning, fortunately for them. Even more thankfully, there wasn't a story night planned for today and as after the first months they didn't occur every night, they had the room all to themselves. It was a pale lavender coloured room, with brown, black and silver decorations on the walls. If the lamps that were situated at a few intervals all around the room were lit, Rose knew that she would be able to see the multitude of couches, tables, armchairs and stools that were haphazardly place all around the room. The Common Room was much bigger than any of the House Common Rooms, something that made sense since all the Houses congregated here, instead of just one. It had proved to be a big boon when she and Al had ended up being sorted into different Houses. However, there were times that she really wished that there were no chances of intermingling with students of different Houses except during the school day. It would make things so much easier. It was embarrassing having Malfoy know about everything that had happened that night, but somehow, it would be even more embarrassing to have Al know. However, one look at his face and she knew that she wasn't getting out of the Common Room without a lengthy explanation. She could almost appreciate having him break rules for her, except for the fact that since he hadn't managed to find her while she needed help, she could think of no reason to relate to him all the silly details that had landed her hanging from the tower, along with one Scorpius Malfoy.

Al lifted one eyebrow at her, something she quite detested since no Weasley ever did that though it must be in the genes since _James_ certainly did that. But more importantly, it reminded her of Malfoy and anything that was remotely like him could only be bad. It didn't do anything for her temper either since she snapped at him, "You better not think that, Albus Severus Potter!"

He smiled at her sweetly before asking, "So if I were to tell Dad exactly what I was doing at night out of bed, you wouldn't mind if I told him that it was because you had gone missing with a Malfoy?"

She looked at him horror. _He wouldn't!_ Her Dad would kill her, and of course he would know since when had either her Dad or Uncle Harry been known for keeping secrets from each other? As family stories went, it was told that Uncle Harry had known that her father was going to propose before her mother did and the same with Uncle Harry, though _his case_ she could understand.

So she muttered grudgingly, "It started out innocently enough."

"Well it ought to since it was you and Scorpius."

She gaped at him he didn't have to take _pleasure _in her pain! So what if she wasn't in any actual pain? Still, she didn't want any tales being carried back to her father, so she said, quietly calmly in her opinion, "I didn't mean innocent as in not salacious but innocent as in not sadistic."

He moaned in mock agony while asking with eyes pointed upwards, "Why is _everyone _suddenly alliterating?"

He looked at her then with a smile on his face before asking slyly, "You mean you weren't actively trying to kill each other?"

"Albus Severus Potter! Of course not! I admit we might be a _bit_ hostile but that does not mean that we want to kill each other!"

Completely diverting from the point, Al asked, "Would you stop using my full name please? I know it well enough considering that I was born with it."

She glared at him before saying rudely, "Well evidently you don't because in case you didn't get the memo, you're supposed to be a _nice, kind, polite man."_

He looked a little intrigued as he asked, "How do you figure _that_ out?"

She smirked at him. She lived for these moments, when someone in her vicinity didn't know something and asked her for the information. Not something to merit an Order of the Merlin, but she was quite sure she could manage that later on. So she said quite pleased to have something over him, "Because you were named after nice, kind, polite people."

Unbeknownst to her, Al hid a smirk before asking perfectly politely, "Oh yeah?"

She said emphatically, "course you were. Uncle Harry even felt sorry for Voldemort and you know how hard that is."

He grinned at her as he said, "Well lucky for you that I'm not named after _him_."

She looked at him in indignation, "Of course you are! You're a Potter!"

He smiled at her broadly, no doubt revelling in getting a rise out of her. He always loved teasing her, she thought uncharitably, and somehow, no one ever found out about it, keeping on thinking that milk wouldn't wash off him. Like now for instant, telling her with that broad smile that somehow wasn't much better than a smirk, "We'll just have to agree to disagree, won't we?"

She sniffed, that just didn't merit a comment. He didn't give her long to sulk though, instead saying with a hand wave, "Well, continue."

She shot him a glare for good measure before saying enthusiastically, "Albus Dumbledore! A nicer, kinder, politer man you couldn't find!"

"You evidently didn't read his biography."

"His biography?" she asked, diverted. She had always wanted to read it! And yet she knew that if she ever bought the Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore, she'd be ostracized by the entire family. And here was Al, already having read it and what did he mean that it contradicted everything that she had ever hear about him from almost everyone? _No._ she shook her head, unwilling to be distracted. She could mull over this as much as she wanted later on, when she didn't have an Al to prove wrong. So she continued, "Severus Snape, the…"

She paused, he wasn't precisely the role model he could have been now, was he? Al evidently knew that too since he smirked, prompting her to exclaim, irritated, "Well we might have expected you to emulate the only Slytherin in the bunch!"  
"You can't say you're surprised, surely. After all I _am _in Slytherin. And admit it, I could have done a lot worse." He mock consoled her. _it wasn't reassuring!_ "At least I have brains."

And he did, wonder of wonders. He could get really good marks when he tried. She wasn't about to admit that though, so she said with a sniff, "Don't know where you get it from though. No one in your family's that good at it."

"No, but we definitely have common sense in spades, something that appears t have skipped your side of the family entirely."

"What do you mean by that?" she asked, offended. She had plenty of common sense, thank you!

He sent her an arch glance as he said, "it must have if you spent nearly half an hour hanging from a tower."

_How did he figure that out? Never mind._ "It was _not_ an hour! Just a few minutes at most!"

"How did you mange that anyway?" he asked curiously, looking all too pleased with himself as he smirked at her.

_Oh shit!_ He got her to admit it herself. It wasn't just a guess now, it was a full on confession. So she could be pretty well allowed to tell him grumpily, "You'd know that if you didn't keep on interrupting me all the time or changing the subject."

"Fine! Fine!" he said with a placating motion of his hands. "Don't get your knickers in a twist."

"Albus!" She scowled as she yelled at him but she didn't get to complete her words because he nodded his head and said in the world weary tones that only a teenager could manage, "Yes, yes, I know. Severus Potter."

**A/N: okay, if any of you want a detailed exploit of what happened to land Rose and Scorpius where they did, just PM me, or even better, put it in the reviews. if enough number of people say that they can't make do with Al's hypothesis, i might just write it all. but please send you opinion in the next few days, because otherwise there's gonna be a wait till December since i only have like 2-3 days to write a chapter since after that, tests for me.**


	5. Chapter 5 Don't want you bla bla bla

**A/N: At least I managed to update before a month had passed. Unfortunately enough, tests and an inability to remain in the room containing the computer due to allergies does that to a person. Can't even say that the next update won't be as slow because we're gonna shift soon and that means no internet connection, or even a computer, for at least a week. **

**Harry Potter doesn't belong to me, though the position paper I'm going to write for my first ever MUN definitely does. **CHAPTER 4

Where Alice realises that beggars can't be choosers, especially about friends, family and assorted well-wishers. however, one can definitely be choosy about sniggering at Malfoy or, in extreme cases crying because of him

Alice Longbottom frowned at her brother Frank Longbottom and one of his best friends Lily Potter as they tried to hide something behind their backs. She sidled a little to the right, but they mirrored her actions. So she sidled a little to the left, but didn't fare any better.

In exasperation, she asked, "What are you hiding behind your backs?"

Her brother stuck out his tongue at her before saying smarmily, "You're not a Prefect so we don't have to tell you."

_Rub the salt deeper, why don't you?_ Really, little brothers were a nuisance, she decided, especially when they were at the impressionable age of thirteen and decided that the person they wanted to impersonate happened to be the biggest rat on earth.

Since her brother didn't seem to be in any mood to tell her what they happened to be hiding behind their backs that they considered it necessary to sneak along the wall of the corridor to hide it from prying eyes, she turned to Lily.

"Why don't _you_ tell me what you're hiding, Lils?"

A stubborn look appeared on the redhead's face and her eyebrows drew closer above those blue eyes before she said resolutely, "No. like Frank said you're not a Prefect nor are you family. We don't have to tell you anything."

Alice let a hurt expression appear on her face as she asked softly, "I'm not family?"

Instantly a contrite look appeared on her face as she said apologetically, "Not _my_ blood family. You're Hugo's sister of course, but that means that I don't have to tell you anything."

A mulish expression had appeared on that freckled face by the time the last words left her lips. Alice sighed. She liked life much better when she was around to keep an eye on those two and they as a result nearly worshipped the ground she walked on. Now they were teenagers with their own stubborn opinions and a snarky as hell attitude. She tried to sound strict as she said, "James is the Head Boy. I'm quite sure that you wouldn't _really_ like telling figures of authority what you're hiding if you can't even tell me." She knew they looked up at him; he was the biggest rat on earth after all.

"He knows!" Frank proclaimed triumphantly. "Even more, it was his idea."

This was even worse, she thought in dismay. There she was, a girl who would have become Prefect if only she had better grades, or interest in Quidditch, and here was her brother, on the way to becoming a juvenile criminal! James Potter really needed a talking to; she thought furiously, her dismay quickly turning to anger as she thought upon the heinousness of the act he had committed. So this was how the good for nothing boy had become Head Boy in his final year when he had spent the majority of his school years in detention previously. _He was delegating work!_

Oh well, surely there must be at least one Prefect around who was actually dedicated to their calling, one whom the two-thirds part of the Troublesome Trio would actually tell their no doubt nefarious plans to. Wait…did she actually think what she thought she did? Why in Merlin's name would the Troublesome Trio, two-thirds or not, tell anything about their dastardly plans to anyone who was not going to help them, let alone a prefect whose sole duty was to confiscate any banned items they possessed and then promptly give them detention for their belongings? Hmm that called for some thinking. Who would get what those two were planning _and_ get them in trouble for it?

She didn't bother thinking of why she was so interested in getting anyone in trouble, let alone her relative and near relative, especially if it meant that a Prefect would be involved. So she looked around the corridor, keeping an eye on Frank and Lily to make sure that they did not sneak off, which made looking around _really_ more difficult than it was meant to be, she was sure.

And then she saw exactly the person she was looking for. A figure in a position of authority, yet someone who hadn't held it for long enough to become entrenched in anyone's mind as such. Someone who was naturally sneaky and crafty _and _was friendly with these two. Someone who could give James and Fred a run for their money in mischief and yet never seemed to get caught, something that they always failed at. Someone whose many past misdeeds the two third-years behind her were very well acquainted with, yet someone who would surely do his duty to show that yes, he deserved to be where he was.

And so she took a deep breath, cupped her mouth with her hands and let out an ear splitting yell, "MAAAALFOOOY!"

Scorpius was having a really bad day. A devastatingly demolished day if he was being precise, which he always was. Vague threats never did anyone any good after all, did they? First, he woke up on the wrong side of the bed, literally. He woke up feeling sleepy, turned his head, saw the antique clock on his bedside and instantly sat up in shock. _He was late!_ That might explain why he got up in a hurry, got out of the bed, took a few rushed steps and promptly tripped over the prone body of his fellow roommate Lysander Scamander.

He got up slowly, cursing under his breath and rubbing his knees. They hurt like hell and it wasn't a feeling he liked experiencing again. Plus, the floor was really cold, being a part of the grand dungeons that they were. And for anyone who didn't get it, that was meant to be sarcastic, and the fact that he could and _was_ being sarcastic in his own mind was something he _really _didn't want to think about. He turned around and asked Scamander without even bothering to hide his irritation, not because he wanted him to feel discomforted but because he wouldn't notice anyway, "Just what the hell do you think you are doing loitering around my bed?"

Just as he was beginning to start feeling slightly worried that something had happened to Scamander, and even more than that, that he was going to state that he was loitering around his _own _ bed, he spoke dreamily, "Lucy doesn't like it when I get philosophical on her so I'm getting it all finished here. Did you know that the dungeon has a really good atmosphere for thinking? There are thirty pairs of eight green stones and fifteen of silver ones in each room in the Slytherin House."

Scorpius didn't even waste time by thinking about this statement, or whether the dreamy tone was in his voice because he was thinking of the Head Girl or because he was naturally born thinking of things that most people lived their entire lives without even knowing of their existence. What Scamander categorised as philosophical was what he called completely barmy.

He quickly took his robes and went into the bathroom to brush his teeth and have a quick shower. Except when he started the shower, instead of the hot or even lukewarm water that he expected, he was hit with ice cold water. _In the dungeons. That were in a stone castle. In Scotland. In autumn._

It just didn't bear thinking about so he didn't. He grabbed his wand with shivering fingers and cast a quick heating spell. Except it was too good of a spell and he yelped as scorching hot water hit his back. Thank Merlin and all his misbegotten spawn from hell that he hadn't tilted his head up. His looks were something he wasn't going to ruin by plain_ burning_ and not even the more dashing bruises.

He hurriedly got out of the shower. He didn't need to shower that much. Cleanliness and all its patrons could go to hell for all he cared. Brushing his teeth was enough. He got out of the bathroom after dressing up in record speed (or nearly surely) and grabbing his bag, started rushing out of the door. But just when he got to the door of the dormitory, the door opened. And since it opened inwards, what happened next couldn't be that much of a shock. Clutching his now throbbing head, he took out his wand and shouted at Edgar Wallace, "_Petrificus Totalus_!"

He always did have a good petrifying spell, he noticed with satisfaction. He felt his forehead and after making sure that it wasn't going to start swelling or anything, he ran all the way down to the great Hall. He would be damned before he missed his breakfast. He nearly was.

"_INSOLENT BOY! NO RESPECT FOR YOUR ELDERS! YOU OUGHT TO BE HUNG UP BY YOUR TOES AND FED TO SEMI HUNGRY CROCODILES SO THEY CAN BITE OFF PIECES OFF YOU ONE AT A TIME!"_

He quickly slipped behind a tapestry that he knew was a short cut. He wasn't going to take the risk of encountering any more ghosts like the Bloody Baron and if he could help it, any live people either till he had his breakfast. Of course, that could have only have happened if fortune was smiling at him, which all the previous incidents should have warned him it wasn't. Because just when he was nearly to the great hall, from where he could still smell the delicious fragrance of bacon, kippers, eggs, he sniffed, and was that noodles, he heard a shrill female voice scream at him. And as much as he would have liked to pretend it wasn't him she was calling, it was hard to do that when she insisted on screaming, "MAALFOOY!" Once again.

Lily and Hugo and Frank had a marvellous plan for a prank. It was full proof, funny and didn't even hurt anyone. So that morning, when Lily woke up (Lily Luna Potter, not Lily Evans Potter, as demonstrated by the fact that she _was_ indeed, waking up, and not spending all her time buried six feet under), the sun was shining, the birds were chirping and the grass was green on her side as well. Not really. It was raining, the skies were dark and cloudy (it was raining, _duh_!) and if there were any birds doing any sort of chirping, it was because they were complaining and not because they were applauding nature's creations.

She leisurely got up, and got ready for class. There were perks to getting up early, whatever anyone else in her too extensive family said. When she made her way downstairs, her mood was still all too cheerful (she should have known something was going to happen to ruin it all) and so she decided to go and wake up her partners-in–crime. She skipped up the stairs to the boys' dormitory (can one skip up stairs? 'Cause if one can, she totally did) and opened the door of the third year's. She _so _loved the fact that while she could go to bug any of her friends or even all those relatives who had ended up in Gryffindor, _they_ couldn't come and bug her because _boys couldn't enter the girls' dormitory!_ The fact that none of her older cousins ever tried to bug her anyway, even those who were girls like her and could enter the dormitory anytime they liked, she easily explained away as being a side effect of being the youngest Weasley at Hogwarts. The fact that she still was, since Roxy had gotten spattergroit somehow was something that she liked very much.

Entering the room, she looked around for Hugo and Frank and finding them, smiled deviously. They were about to get such a nice wake up. She decided to wake Frank up first because Hugo could sleep through a small hurricane while Frank would get a warning if she tried to wake Hugo up first. With a yell, she jumped onto Frank's bed and shouted, "Wakey wakey!" before proceeding to jump all over the bed (and incidentally, quite a lot over him as well).

"Geroff!" a muttered yell made it to her ears (can yells be muttered?) as Frank pulled the blankets off his face. Lily gave a huge smile before saying cheerfully, "One down, one to go. Let's go!"

Leaving Frank muttering under his breath, she ran to where Hugo's bed was and jumped on top of it. She landed right across the redhead's stomach, making him let loose a muffled oomph before twisting and shoving her off the bed. Lily landed with a thump and glared at her cousin as she got up while rubbing her bottom. _Someone _was going to pay for the bruise she could feel forming on her backside, and that someone happened to be a particular redhead whose first name happened to be Hugo and whose last name happened to be Weasley.

"Argh!" Hugo shouted as his blankets were pulled off the bed and a jug full of water was upended over his face. Spluttering, he sat up, looking around in confusion to find out what had happened. He looked really funny, water dripping down his face in rivulets, the front of his pyjama top sopping wet. He looked so befuddled that Lily burst out laughing. She simply couldn't help it. Tossing him a gloating smirk, she told him with mock sweetness, "You look so wet? You really should try to take baths in the bathroom. It's not good for your health to wet your bed you see?"

She could hear Frank snorting as he tried to stop his laughter behind her. Hugo slowly focused on her but his expression didn't get any more enlightened. If anything, he looked even more confused as he asked, "What are you doing here?"

Lily shook her head in sorrow before speaking to him as if talking to a particularly dim toddler, "It's time for classes, you see. I, being the nice person I am, decided to wake you up so that you didn't start the day by being late."

As she turned around and started making her way out of the third year boys' dormitory, Hugo let loose a yell as he felt how cold he was and shouted at her, "If I wanted to wake up early I would get an alarm clock!" before throwing his pillow at her. The pillow would have hit her but with the chaser instincts that two out of the three Potters had inherited; she caught it and threw it right back at him. And without giving him any time to send any more projectiles her way; she hurried out of the dormitory. Dignified retreats were overrated anyway.

She went down to the common room and got her books ready for the day's classes. She wanted nothing at all to make her late for the mission she had. And yes, she knew that labelling a prank a mission was a bit of overkill but she believed that if she had to do something she could just as well do it right. She didn't have to wait for long. The boys came down soon enough and there shone the same light in their faces that she was sure shone on her own. Hugo was fairly vibrating with excitement as he asked, "So, is everything fine?"

Lily grinned back at him as she said, "Just waiting for you guys. "

"So where's the gargoyle?"

Lily patted her bag smugly. "Right here. It's very light too."

Hugo looked a little doubtful at that, "How can a stone gargoyle big enough to replace the one in front of Flitwick's office fit in your bag as well as be _light_?"

Frank looked at him in irritation as he asked, "Did you by any chance forget a marvellous thing known as magic?"

Hugo flushed as he muttered a hurried, "No" before taking up her bag and moving towards the portrait hole. Lily shook her head at these antics. As if simply turning away would hide the fact that the famous Weasley blush had made itself known. The wizard's neck was red as a beetroot and left nothing to imagination of his mental state.

She got up and hurried after him. She would be damned before she was going to allow him to hold the prank. Anyone related to clumsy Rosie could not be trusted with anything this delicate. Not unless they had another magically made fake stone gargoyle ready at hand. Which they didn't.

Frank grinned at the retreating backs of his friends before noticing that he now had three school bags to carry since Hugo had left his behind and Lily just _had_ to pack two bags instead of one like any other normal person. But then again, what else could one expect of anyone related to Rose, who was currently ding NEWT level spells instead of the OWL level ones like anyone else in her year? So like the pack mule he had been reduced to, he picked up all three bags and huffing and puffing with the exertion, followed his friends out of the common room.

The prank went marvellously, something that was bound to happen since it was the affectionately and sometimes not so affectionately title Troublesome Trio that enacted it. The fact that it had been James and Fred's plan, who had been called the spirit descendants of the Weasley twins more than once, didn't hurt. The only hitch in the plan was that the actual gargoyle seemed somewhat reluctant to being repositioned. Telling it that it would soon be where it used to be didn't get any response except a belligerent, "Then can't you simply leave me here then?"

Finally, Frank did the shrinking spell that he had been practising ever since Hugo told him about the plan and soon the grumbling voice of the displaced gargoyle took on a decidedly squeaky tone as it swiftly shrank till it could easily fit in the bag that the fake statue had been brought in. Lily tried to lift it but failed miserably. She tried again and again as Hugo's face started taking on a worried face as they continued time, time that they were supposed to be using for other purposes. A missing gargoyle was good enough, but really, a talking gargoyle that suddenly seemed to take offence at nothing in particular and refused to utter a single word till it vanished the next day as the spell wore off was an even better prank.

Hugo finally snapped and whispered intently, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Lily jerked as the statue came into her hands, a triumphant look filling her face but then she saw that Hugo's wand was out and a sullen expression replaced it. She hated failing and it was obvious that she had. However, she didn't say anything, instead lifting the fake statue and putting it in front of the statue as she said, "Quick, enlarge it."

Hugo quickly cast the spell he had spent the last two weeks practicing (he had the asinine belief that he didn't need any more time to master a Fourth Year Charms spell, something that Frank was loathe to admit, he didn't) and the statue soon became the exact duplicate of the actual one they had just put into Lily's bag. And if there were slight inconsistencies, well, they weren't very noticeable. Then Lily did her own part of the spells they were doing and soon the statue was fixed to the floor in front of the staircase. They hurried out of the corridor, while there wasn't any reason they shouldn't be in the corridor, there wasn't any reason they should be either. Of course, hurrying was made difficult by the fact that Frank had to levitate Lily's bag as the statue didn't lose any of its weight even after shrinking. No doubt it was one of its protective methods; however, it was nothing that a simple charm couldn't circumvent. However, the further the got away from the site of their biggest prank yet, the more difficult it became to keep the spell active till finally, the bag crashed right to the floor, pulling Lily down in its wake.

She landed with a thump and glared at Frank as she attempted to get up and failed due to the deadweight currently occupying her bag. A sinister chuckle filled the air and they looked around worriedly, searching for the laugher. It took another chuckle to vibrate the bag before they realised that it was the gargoyle that was laughing at them. Lily wrenched open the flap of the bag and snarled at it, "If I were you I wouldn't be so happy to flop down in the middle of the hallway like that. You might break that fancy, ugly, bloated head of yours."

The gargoyle laughed again, and though Frank couldn't see it since Lily crowded up the space, he was sure that the statue must have made some sort of nasty face as Lily's face took on a decidedly reddish hue as she started fuming. She opened the other bag that Hugo was carrying now since Frank had been busy and took out a few thin books before taking out a top, which she proceeded to tie all over the gargoyle's head despite its protests. All the while she kept muttering, "I will be damned if I take cheek from a piece of statue. I will personally smash you into little itsy-bitsy pieces if you cause me to fail in the one prank that James trusted me enough to carry out in his place. I will paint you a ghastly pink, tie ribbons all over you, and if I feel like humiliating you any more, I'll even put lipstick on your face and _then,_ after clicking a picture of course, I'll crush you under my shoes. You'll have the honour of being the dirt beneath Lily Potter's feet."

Finally, after one final tug to ensure that the cloth was tied firmly, she closed the bag and smiled feral smile at them. Hugo looked at her as if she had lost her brains before asking, "_Why_ do you have clothes in you school bag?"

Frank looked at him in exasperation as he asked, "Don't tell me you've forgotten, _again_, that today's a Meet the Muggles Day?"

Hugo looked at him doubtfully before turning and asking Lily, "Is it?"

She lifted her arms in irritation as she replied, "Yes, it is. Hugo!"

He stared at her for a few more moments before jumping over her, causing Lily to flinch and throw herself to the floor so that he didn't kick her head. He ran away shouting at them, "I'll meet you in front of the gates, okay?"

Lily huffed as she picked herself off the floor before shooting a dirty look at him that said quite clearly_ keep your mouth shut about this or else… _. Frank grinned and pretended to cast a silencing charm on himself as he told her, "C'mon, this time, you do the spell."

Lily cast the spell as told, though she had a look on her face that seemed to scream _SLAVE LABOUR!_

Frank didn't pay any attention to her feelings on the matter however since her levitating spell seemed to be the worst one ever cast. He was quite sure that he had done a much better job, not that there was anyone around who could verify it. However, since his spell had failed after only a few moments, he kept his mouth shut and concentrated on taking his load that seemed to be gaining weight steadily , to the Gryffindor Tower. However, when he was near the Great Hall, nearly there and needing only to cross it, he couldn't do it any longer. He dropped the bag (that he had been carrying in his arms, he wasn't an idiot) on the floor with a loud thumping noise. He peered at the bag suspiciously while shaking his arms to relax them. The noise made was too much for a tiny six inch tall statue. Lily came forward then, forewarning in her eyes. She asked hesitantly, "Magic doesn't seem to stick to it. Do you think…?"

Frank looked down at the bag and watched as Lily slowly opened the flap again and instantly snapped it shut again. She gave him a sickly smile before saying in a quivery voice, "Let's hurry, shall we?" Frank nodded mutely the bag was bulging in odd places.

This time however, it took both of them to pick up the bag and move with it too, making their progress considerably slower. Thus, when he nodded towards the wall, Lily nodded at him and they slowly but steadily (the phrase huffing and puffing was being applied to him too often that day for him to use it again) made their way to the wall of the corridor. It took a bit of manoeuvring but they finally got the bag situated behind their backs in such a way that if they counted under their breath, they could almost manage a slow march towards the Gryffindor tower.

"Frank!" he winced. He could recognise his sister's voice anywhere, especially when it had that tone in it that just seemed to say that he was in trouble. He quickly sidled closer to Lily so that the bag that was starting to weigh more like a two year old mountain troll than a shrunk statue was hidden as much as it could be. And that was how Alice found them. Frank let all that she said fly past his brain, automatically giving answers like only someone who had grown up with a sibling could as he paid attention to steadying his limbs. His arms, and somehow even his legs, were quivering like anything and the painful stretching sensation was something that he was finding to be very _unpleasant_. Suffice It to say that the next time Lily asked for a massage because her body was aching because of Quidditch, he was going to comply. As long as someone massaged him, or at least cast a pretty powerful pain free spell on him. Suddenly a voice seemed to nearly split his eardrums into two. He started and dropped the bag. It landed with a jarring thud and he looked guiltily at Lily but looking around, he found that he had gone unnoticed. Or at least unnoticed by his sister as Malfoy narrowed his eyes at them before turning his famous icy glare at Alice. He almost felt like protecting her but he squashed the impulse as soon as it made itself known. Whatever kept attention away from the gargoyle masquerading as a school bag. While he wasn't sure about Malfoy, he was quite sure that Alice at least would definitely squeal on them. It was just the type of person she was and he would not for the world give her up. Or at least not unless he was offered an unlimited supply of Honeyduke's best milk chocolate _plus_ the latest model of the Spearthrust brooms that had a spearhead finish, just as its name boasted. Sisters came after brooms. It was a fact of nature. She could be glad that at least he was holding out for more.

Alice looked at those cold eyes that seemed to practically throw out sparks, and not the type that they wrote about in books either, and swallowed. She was suddenly very glad that years of having him glare at Rose had practically immunised her from his anger. She moved two steps backward. _Practically_ was not the same as completely and she dared anyone to not flinch from the sole heir of the Malfoy legacy. He was scary, as much as she hated to admit it. However, Longbottoms were nothing if not truthful, though that trait seemed to have completely missed her brother by.

Malfoy looked at her with disdain and asked viciously, "And what gave you the right to address me, _Oh Daughter of a Professor?_ I didn't know your kind was fit to talk to those of us who actually belong at this school and didn't get in simply because our parent taught here."

Alice tried to keep her face from showing any emotion but she must not have succeeded even as well as she had thought since Malfoy smiled at her maliciously as he asked, "Hurts, doesn't it? But don't worry," he continued mockingly. "I'm quite sure that you'll manage to find some life threatening situation to give your magic the boost it needs. Or if not," here he smiled, "no one will regret it very much, you know."

"Shut up!" she told him. She could feel the tears gathering in her eyes and she blinked furiously. She was not going to cry in front of Malfoy.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked him intensely. He was bad but he never picked on her after the first few months in their first year and that made it doubly hard to control her traitorous emotions since she had gotten out of the habit of suppressing all emotions.

He looked at her blankly before saying in a disgusted tone of voice, "I'm hungry, late, have a giant bump on my head, scrapped knees, been attacked by the Bloody Baron and have to deal with the fact that I was stuck on the Astronomy Tower with Weasley of all people, for two whole hours. And then you had to go and ruin an already awful day and you have the nerve to ask what's wrong with me?"

"It still hurt." She said softly, unable to muster up enough energy to get past that huge lump blocking her throat.

He looked faintly guilty for a moment before getting the effortlessly arrogant look on her face that all pure bloods except her seemed to manage to get and said as if he was conferring a great honour on her, "You can copy my Potions homework if you're feeling that slighted."

She was going to reply that no, that didn't make it all right when something really strange happened. A tiny whirlwind streaked out of the Great Hall and jumped into Malfoy's arms, arms that were suddenly wrapped securely around the little bundle that squealed happily, "Scorpy!"

Alice would have laughed at the expression on Malfoy's face at the pronouncement except that she felt like she ought to know the little girl, and little girl it certainly was since no boy would be caught dead in those pigtails. The girl wrapped her legs around Malfoy's waist (was she tiny or what, she looked about six) and lifted her head off his shoulder.

Alice's breath caught.

Was that…_Roxy?_

**A/N:Okay, so there may be slight mistakes in the storyline because FFnet has totally screwed up the document I uploaded and while I've fixed the more visible mistakes like at the end of the chapter gibberish, I can't say I got it all. Add that to the fact that I like updating as soon as I have finished writing and reading it once, well there might be lots of little mistakes and sorry for that.**_  
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**So, how do you like Lily? And Alice? She's a bit obsessed with prefects and hates it that she got passed up as one by Rose because..surprise!..she's not that good in anything. What about Scorpius? He's a bit hateful in the end but he just doesn't seem to be the person who bottles up his irritation and doesn't let it loose at the person who happens to be the final straw. And finally, please review.  
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**PS: Did I make any cousins for Scorpius? and if yes, are they Notts or Zabinis? I honestly don't remember and could anyone who does please PM me the answer? you can put it into a review too.  
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**PPS (this is turning out to be big or what?): What house do you guys want Roxy to be in? I've got a pretty good idea as to where I want to put her in but ideas would be great since nothing's concrete yet. And yes, Roxy and Scorpius really _are_ fond of each other.  
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	6. why am i helping

CHAPTER 5

In which Scorpius finds that he may be one of the only sane Slytherins in existence. Though sane might be a debatable term.

Like any other normal wizard, when confronted by attacking females whose preferred form of attack was hugging, Scorpius did the one thing that had been drilled into him from birth. He caught her, and then promptly dropped her. And then yowled as she landed on his feet. Especially his poor right foot that had been damaged in the confrontation with Scamander. His ancestors had the right idea, he decided, as he did an undignified hop, clutching his poor foot. Women, witches or not, did the best when subjugated. Give them the right to free action and look where that got them, jumping on poor wizards whose only crime was, actually, there wasn't any crime except looking entirely too handsome. And hot. And devilishly attractive. Though really, he thought with a huff as he became aware of the sniggers his mad hopping were inciting, eleven year olds were entirely too young to get into all this. He shot a glare at Longbottom Sr at a particularly loud guffaw before shooting a venomously warning look at Jr. it was a sign of how disturbed he was that he didn't even bother alliterating, something he always insisted on doing since it was such a challenge, that and because Weasley couldn't do it. Leech jabbed Longbottom Sr in the stomach to get her to shut up before turning to the body currently making its way to a standing position. A look of horror filled her face to his surprise and she asked, "Roxy?"

Scorpius turned around and saw that yes, indeed, it was Roxanne. A Roxanne, he noticed, who was rubbing her derriere in a highly unseemly manner. "Roxanne." He chided her.

"It's your fault," she shot back with a glare. "You dropped me, now suffer, you pompous, overgrown, foul, faded out ferret."

"Why do all of you Weasleys insist on calling me 'ferret' whenever you feel like it? _I _never call you weasels, though believe me, I'm tempted." He asked in exasperation. Anything to get the girl off the topic of his having dropped her. He had been on the planning side of enough of her revenges to know that he really did not want to be on the receiving end of any of them. Roxanne, however, it seemed was not willing to let it go. She frowned at him and said, "I was excited to see you after so long and what did you? You ruined my first day at school, gave me bump on my butt and now are scolding me?"

Scorpius winced. "Ladies do not use the word _butt._ Stop reading those muggle books at once."

Roxanne smiled knowingly, "Lucy says butt. Bet you only mind because I got it from a muggle book."

Scorpius frowned at her and asked, choosing to ignore what she had said for the time being, "When did you get here?"

"Today. And yes, I'm completely fine. And more importantly Mr I'm so pure blooded I'd die at the first chance of infection, no, I'm not contagious anymore." She said wearily.

"I wasn't going to ask that. "He protested.

"What part? Where you ask me how I am, or where you wheedle out of me whether I'm contagious or not?"

"Both, actually." He said with a smirk. There was something extremely shameful about getting a kick out of outwitting an eleven year old girl, but in his defence, it was a very nasty and sneaky eleven years old. "I was going to ask whether you had been sorted yet. Because I've got no desire at all to see you start crying when the sorting hat sits on your head for so long that everyone has to admit that you just don't belong in Hogwarts at all."

Any other first year would have at least looked apprehensive about this, and indeed, Longbottom Sr did as she said, "Don't worry Roxy, you got into Hogwarts, didn't you? That means that you're definitely getting sorted."

Roxanne smiled a strange little smile and Scorpius knew that she was thinking about how surprised everyone had been to see the letter from Hogwarts bearing her name. After all, if Al had been that shocked while telling him, she must have gone through much more… and much worse. Leech spoke up then though, before he could say something to make her feel silly for ever feeling worried about her chances of getting in, and of course, something cutting to L S, (Longbottom Sr was a bit of a mouthful) to make her regret spoiling the mood of the girl whom he thought of as almost his sister. After all, she knew that he was kidding her.

Leach butted in, he had a feeling that she was always butting in, "How come Uncle George didn't tell me that you were coming today?"

"Maybe because you're not his daughter?" suggested Roxanne calmly.

Leach scoffed as she said, "That's only in blood. I'm his daughter in spirit, just like James and Fred are Uncle Fred and George in spirit. His own daughter's a disgrace. But don't worry. I'm sure he doesn't blame you anymore." The last was said in a patronising tone that made it obvious that he must have once upon a while. Even worse, Scorpius thought in disgust, there was not a single indication that the little insect was even aware that she was hurting her own cousin. And if there was one thing that he was totally against, it was people hurting their own family. After all, it wasn't as if he wanted to defend the dimwit cousin of his, Clara Zabini. Talk about carrying the wrong genes along. If there was any reassurance given that Uncle Blaise was _not_ psychologically wounded due to his ever changing number of fathers, marrying Aunt Daphne put them all as lies in the dust. After all, anyone further from a murderess than pretty, gentle, nice, kind, _slow_ Aunt Daphne was hard to find. And hence, even though he felt like protecting Roxanne, he didn't, letting her fight her own fights. If he didn't, chances were that he would drive a rift between the cousins. He knew quite well that when she was young, she was sure that he made the constellation Scorpion. And yes, maybe he did tell her that and maybe she didn't believe it any longer, but the emotion and faith in him that had made her believe him for the first time was still there and he knew that she would always take his side, no matter what.

So he kept his mouth shut and cheered her silently while Roxanne looked at the insect that brought the entire species down and then asked with deceptive innocence, "Wow! Jealous much?"

Of course, the insect that was so low that it could be expected to hibernate, being a Gryffindor, didn't get the sarcasm and flushing brightly, said hotly, "That is a lie! Just because you've always wanted my dad doesn't mean that I want yours!"

Roxanne blinked at her, looking for the entire world as if that was so preposterous that it didn't even merit a reaction before asking with a snotty accent, "Pardon?"

Scorpius could have winced at the faux pass. Only the nouveau rich used words like 'pardon' anymore. It was a sure sign of inferior breeding. After all, why be polite when bluntness would work just as well. As the saying went, _if they can't trace their blood back at least five generations from both sides, they are little better than muggles._ But then again, he rationalised, the Half Breed (she was in a house named after Griffins, what better insult?) could hardly know that. Junior opened his mouth, no doubt to spout some more nonsense, so he said in a silky smooth voice (he knew it was an apt description. He had practiced for days to get it just right) , "Dear little Friffins, ( a play on the word Griffins, obviously) surely you know that there seems to stone masonry spouting out of your bag? Because if you do, Detention for three weeks for vandalism. And if you don't… well, let's make it two weeks for carting around like regular idiots, shall we?"

And with a wave of his wand (a nonverbal spell. He was very proud of himself to have managed to do it before the Weasley) he summoned Roxanne's bag that she had dropped when she ran to hug him and handed it to him. Enjoying the shouts that started being heard as LS screamed at the little mischief makers; he strode out of the Entrance Hall, closely followed by Roxanne with a smirk on his face. He might be in a hurry but Malfoys never hurried anywhere. At least never when there were people around.

They were having breakfast when Rox (as she preferred being called) smiled hesitantly and asked, "Don't you want to hang around with your friends?"

Scorpius smirked back at her but she could tell that he was unhappy about something. So she looked at him till he sighed and answered, "It's Weasley's day. Whenever we have the chance to get out of school, she and I share Al. today's her day and Flint takes ages to come down whenever there's a holiday or what she considers one."

She remembered something that Professor Flitwick had said and asked him, "Today's Meet the Muggles Day, isn't it?"

Scorpius nodded as he took a huge bite of his omelette, managing to look elegant and not like a starving growing boy as he did it, something that her brother hadn't yet managed to do even though he was two years older than the boy sitting in front of her.

"So you're all alone?" she asked.

"Not for long," he replied after finishing his mouthful. That was one of the many things that she liked about him. He was so unfailingly _proper._ He would never be found speaking with his mouth full. She smiled at him affectionately before asking, "You mean I should come with you?"

He looked a bit surprised at that and a female voice answered from behind her, "Oh no. it means that since I am here, he has no need to go off alone anywhere. Runt."

She turned around and saw a girl with a pale, pointed face look at her inquisitively. There was something cold in her face, something that just seemed to shout _Hands Off!_ Her bright green eyes were the only spark of animation on her face, because somehow, even her silky smooth black hair only contributed to make her look more like a statue. She looked at the girl's hair in envy and sighed. _She _wanted hair like that! She looked at how there seemed to be just a hint of curls at the very bottom of her hair that hung loose nearly to her thighs. She frowned as she took that in.

Turning around to face Scorpius again, she asked curiously, "Are we allowed to keep our hair loose? Fred said there was a rule against that."

Scorpius snorted. "And you believed him? And that there is Eloise Flint."

Flint took a seat at their table, something that Rox was displeased to note. She had been looking forward to spending the entire breakfast with Scorpius, _alone._ She refrained from frowning though. No need to show her displeasure after all. She did scowl though when Flint pointed her thumb at her and asked, "What are you doing with the runt?"

"I am not a runt!" she protested.

Scorpius threw an amused glance at her before saying, "Sorry Rox but you are."

"Ah! So this is the infamous little Roxanne is it? The one that no one except those _not_ family know can do magic?" The Ice Queen (as she decided to christen the girl) asked with nary an expression on her face as she leisurely buttered her toast.

Scorpius looked down with a smirk on his face before taking one last bite before announcing, "Well, I'm finished. Let's go before all the good portkeys are gone."

"Portkeys?" she asked in confusion. The Ice Queen nodded before taking a sip of her pumpkin juice, something that she personally could not imagine anyone drinking voluntarily.

Scorpius took pity on her as he said, "Eat something will you? The educational trips are over, lucky you. Now, there is a choice between different locations and the last ones are always the worst."

"Relax Malfoy. Escaping your cousin can't be that important. And anyway, this time she's decided to visit one of her boyfriend's numerous family homes. The Notts you know. Didn't lose their money for one thing but if she thinks that he's after anything except one thing, she's even more stupid than I thought she was."

Scorpius relaxed back in her seat and smiled a satisfied smile that somehow made him look like a satisfied cat and said, "Good. Dad wants some concentrated Essence of Muggles and he can't be seen buying it himself."

Icy looked warningly at him and he waved a negligent hand and said, "Of Roxanne isn't going to say anything, is she? She's a nice girl after all."

She asked hesitantly, "_What_ exactly does Essence of Muggle mean?" as much as she might regret it, she wasn't going to agree to hide something that caused harm to others who probably did not have any idea at all of what they were getting in.

"Oh nothing much. Voluntarily donated magical essence of a Muggle."

She frowned at him. The fact that he used the words 'voluntarily donated' made it obvious that it was anything but. So she asked suspiciously, "And this donating has nothing to do with people enchanting them to do it, does it?"

Flint looked at her patronisingly, "It doesn't work if you use magic while doing it."

She flushed. _It wasn't as if they discussed such things in her family!_ Especially not in front of her. People were more likely to pat her on her head and send her on her than ever say anything worthwhile in front her. Why, she didn't even know how to apparated when even Lily had learnt by the time she was ten! However, she kept her mouth shut. Like Scorpius had once told her, no one liked whiners. So she focused on eating her piece of bacon, looking up only when she had finished, only to find Flint looking at her speculatively.

She paused and asked with a raised eyebrow, "Is there something on my face? Because I don't think staring at me will get rid of it." It was a defence mechanism, being nasty whenever there was any chance that something bad was going to happen to her, she was going to do something bad to the person who was going to do it before they could manage it.

It didn't work as she had thought it would though since Flint smirked and said, "I'm a Slytherin. If there's food on your face, I've probably helped you put it on."

She stared at the older girl. _What?_

She was so flabbergasted that she didn't even answer that and Flint turned to Scorpius and asked, "Runt going to Mugs? 'Cause she can't come with us, no matter what."

_That_ made her speak up. "Of course I'm coming! There's gonna be no one else in the school. And I don't want to come with you anyway." She sneered for effect.

Scorpius laughed, drawing her attention back to him. She glared at him. _That _was his best friend insulting her! Wasn't it his duty to defend his so called little sister? Her expression only seemed to make him laugh harder and she asked in irritation, "_What_ is your problem?"

Flint grinned at her and said, "Just that I was making a joke and you got taken in."

"Joke? That was no joke! It was a bloody stab in the heart!" she screeched. Okay, so maybe she liked being a little dramatic. She was always going to blame her Dad for that. What else could anyone expect of someone related to George Weasley?

Scorpius smiled as he told Flint, "Looks like I just found your substitute. Your excuse?"

Flint mimed swooning as she said, "Nose-Blood Nougat."

Rox smirked as she corrected, "Fainting Fancies."

"Whatever." Flint waved a hand as if brushing away something negligent. "Just say one of the Weasleys sneaked something in my food or something."

"Not this Weasley, I hope." Rox interjected. She had no problem with any of her relatives getting in any trouble but she wasn't going to volunteer herself. "And by the way, "she asked for clarification, "What if they say they didn't do it?"

Scorpius put a hand right over his heart as if mortally wounded as he asked piously, "And you'd believe them over us?"

She smiled unwillingly. No, she wouldn't but he didn't need to know that. She turned to Flint and asked, "What are you going to do anyway that he'd need a substitute you?"

Flint smiled at her sweetly before saying, "None of your business."

Rose walked along the corridor sporting, she knew, an uncharacteristic smirk on her face. She hated that the very thought of a smirk made her think of Malfoy, but it wasn't enough to make her stop. After all, there was always something or the other that reminded her of her arch enemy. That did not mean that she would stop doing everything just because he did them too.

She might have messed up royally last night, as well as delivered a really big wound to her pride but the fact that she was going to have Al with her today was a balm. She could have chirped with pleasure but her pleasure was of a more vindictive sort. So she contented herself with a smirk because it was either that or crowing that she had taken away something that she knew that Malfoy wanted. She wrapped her bright gold muffler tighter around her neck and hurried to the Great Hall, where she had promised to meet Al, but she got a shock when she went to hurry past the Entrance Hall. Was that a…_gargoyle_?

She paused and stared. _What the hell was going on?_ And why was Alice screaming at Lily and Frank? And where was her brother, because it was impossible to fathom that her brother wouldn't be there with his best friends. She opened her mouth to say something, trying to get to the bottom of the affair, because of course, as Malfoy was so fond of stating, she was unable to _not_ stick her nose in other peoples' business. If anyone asked her, of course, she would say that she just could not bypass her helping genes, but somehow, no one ever asked her and seemed to be content to think that she was always at fault. And so, when Alice turned to her with that raging virago expression on her face, she resigned herself to the fact that somehow, the entire fault of what she had already mentally dubbed The Gargoyle Case lay with her. She was not disappointed.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOINF, JUST STANDING THERE? DO YOU THINK THAT JUST BECAUSE YOU WERE NOT HERE I WOULDN'T KNOW THAT YOU HELPED THE LITTLE MONSTERS? I ALWAYS KNEW THAT THERE WAS SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU! EVER SINCE YOU UPENDED THAT WHOLE BUCKET OF EEL EYES ON POOR MALFOY, I KNEW THAT YOU WERE A SCHOOLGIRL WIH A DEVIL'S SOUL. WHAT DD YOU THINK? THAT NO ONE WOULD REALISE THAT THE ONLY WAY THAT THESE LACKWIT IDIOTS COULD HAVE MANAGED OWL LEVEL WAS WITH YOUR HELP? WELL THINK AGAIN! I'M GOING TO DAD AND BE QUITE SURE THAT ALLL FOUR OF YOU ARE GOING TO SUFFER. _AND_ THAT MALFOY'S GOING TO BE COMMENDED BECAUSE UNLIKE SOME PEOPLE I CAN NAME, _HE_ DIDN'T SHIRK HIS DUTY!"

At the end of the diatribe, Alice was panting, taking in heaving breaths and looking vindicated. Rose was under no miscomprehension why that was so. _Everyone _knew that if there was one thing she hated more than Malfoy being appreciated for being the great git that he was, it was being _un_appreciated while he was receiving accolades.

She gritted her teeth and let Alice walk away, consoling herself with the thought that Professor Longbottom would surely not think that she had had a hand in this latest prank perpetrated by a member of her family. If she had been judged guilty as many times as she had been accused, she would never have been able to remain in the school itself, let alone become a Prefect. After Alice was gone though, she took a deep breath and turned towards the miscreants that had landed her in _another _problem as they tried to stealthily scurry away, of course they were hampered by the now full size gargoyle that was lying across the floor, smirking at them as they tried to pull it noisily away. She glared at them before casting a quick spell on the statue and then turning straight around and walking away to meet her appointment with her cousin. If she was going to be accused of having taken part in every prank ever done in Hogwarts, it was only right that she commit at least one of the transgressions, surely? And, she thought, being a fair girl, they _had_ done an extremely high level of magic. It was only right that they get some sort of reward for it. Rewards, she reasoned, motivated people to do better. And so she met Al happily, and with a smile on her face, accompanied her cousin to the Portkey Point so that they could take a portkey to Bond Street.

Unfortunately enough, she thought with a scowl, her luck seemed to be running as usual today as well. That is, badly. Because who else could she see joining the line for Bond Street? Yes, that's right, Malfoy. And even worse, the plague on earth had somehow managed to contaminate her cousin Roxy as well. Wait. Roxy wasn't supposed to be here yet. She was supposed to come in November and it was only the second week of October still. She strode across the part of the Quidditch pitch still lying between them, dragging Al along. He made some odd skipping motions while trying to keep up with her and yet not going ahead of her so that she could kick him (the normal sort of rushing was proved a bit too dangerous after she kicked him for the third time) and finally asked in exasperation, throwing up the hand not currently in her clutches, "_Why_ in Merlin's name did you put you such a fuss about staying away from Scorp if you had to rush towards him the moment you saw him? I'm really starting to think twice about you actually fancying the pants off him, you know?"

They were nearly in front of Malfoy, Eloise and Roxy when he said this, and she was so overtaken with indignation that she didn't even bother to think about what would surely happen if she had an outburst right there.

"I DO _NOT_ FANCY THE _PANTS_ OR ANYTHING ELSE OFF HIM, AL! HE'S MALFOY!"

A voice drawled from right behind her, "I always knew you fancied me, Weasley, but really. Do you have to be so _vocal_ about it?"

She turned around in a rush and spat out, "And even if I did, which I don't, did you suddenly end up growing a humble bone that you don't want me announcing the fact?"

He shrugged carelessly, hands in his pocket and said negligently, "Appreciation's always welcome. But I just thought… don't want Al's cousin to appear, should we say…fast? After all, wasn't it just yesterday that you fancied the pants off Davies? Tut, Tut, Weasley. I expected better than this of you."

The smirk on the blonde son of the ferret (if he hadn't been a Death Eater, not to mention dead, she would have hugged Barty Crouch for that piece of transfiguration) was just asking to be slapped away. And so she did.

"Ouch! What was that for Weasley! _Have you finally lost it?" _

She crossed her arms and with a virtuous expression on her face, asked, "Who, me?"

"YES, YOU!" he shouted at her, a palm hiding his rapidly reddening cheek. Roxy, bless her dear little soul, took hold of his hand and pulled it down roughly, trying no doubt to see whether any lasting harm had been done, but only making visible to everyone around the red handprint visibly glowing against his pale face. Blushing furiously, he hid his cheek again, shooting deathly glares at Rose and Roxy both, seeming unable to choose who deserved more of it as the students around them started laughing. She could clearly hear Filch, the absolutely ancient caretaker, snicker to himself.

Professor Siam, the Transfiguration professor and the head of Ravenclaw came up to them then, holding her lips tightly puckered so that she did not smile at the ridiculous ensemble in front of her. She did not believe in showing students that she found their ridicule humorous, but then again, anyone with any brains would realise that the ridicule of others was always funny. She told them sternly, making sure to keep an impassive expression on her face, "Since you are here in this line, I gather you mean to make your way to Bond Street?"

Potter and Flint were the only ones who nodded. Rose Weasley was too busy giggling; Malfoy was too busy glaring at her and the other red haired girl there, no doubt a first year, who was staring at her feet as if all the secrets of the universe were written there. She looked remarkably like one of the Weasleys, what with the red hair, freckles, and red blush, but then again, she reasoned, there were many other students who shared the exact same characteristics but were not related to them. What was more confusing was that she had never seen the girl. So she nudged the girl and asked, 'I haven't seen you around. What's your name?"

Bluntness was the way to take with the stupid students she had to teach, Siam had realised quite early on in her career. Expecting even the most rudimentary calculations from them was foolishness. Expecting them to understand proper grammatical English was pure folly. As the girl looked up at her with a deer caught in headlights (she was extremely fond of the Muggle proverb book she had just read) expression on her face, Siam thought in disappointment that it was too much expecting them to keep their own names in their head sometimes.

As the girl continued to look stricken with fear, and Weasley and Malfoy continued to ignore her presence, Potter answered, "Roxy Weasley."

Except that at the exact same time, Flint answered, "Roxanne Weasley." She looked on in amusement as the students looked at each other in befuddlement, opened their mouths to say something at the exact same time, and then shut them up as well, looking gobsmacked.

"What did you call her?" was the first question out of their mouths as poor little Weasley looked so embarrassed that it wouldn't be such a far-fetched idea to think that she was seriously considering sinking into the ground and disappearing forever.

Siam decided to intercede. Amusing as the confusion between the names was, she had other things to do, other people to meet, other places to be. "Roxy or Roxanne, since I am unlikely to call her anything except Weasley, it happens to be a moot point. So please take your friends along and take a hold of the broken bottle you'll notice the other two students wishing to make their way to Bond Street are holding." Three Weasleys, two Potters, one flint and Malfoy each. It was going to be an interesting trip. She was only sad that she would have to miss it. But then again, there were bound to be at least one student who'd make their way back to the Pitch in a wounded condition. When all of them were holding the bottle, Malfoy and Rose Weasley standing next to each other with some difficulty as Flint refused to give up her place between Albus Potter and Roxanne Weasley and they refused to abide each other, Siam told them, "When you decide to return, all of you _together_, simply say Hogwarts Quidditch Pitch while holding the portkey. Which one of you is going to keep it?"

Both the Potters and the elder Weasleys cried, "ME!" while the younger one said nothing, simply shuffling her feet. While Malfoy and Flint cried, "Roxanne!"

She allowed a smirk to cross her face as everyone except the little Weasley looked at her expectantly before saying, "The majority wins," and tying the ribbon that made sure that the Portkey wasn't lost around Roxanne Weasley's wrist. The girl looked remarkably spot free considering that she had just gone through spattergroit. Padma Siam smiled with real amusement as with elbow jabs, foot stomping and pulling of hair, the group vanished at her command.

When Rose landed on the stone floor of Charms and Florists, it was with a jar and a feeling of being buried under a ton of earth. She panted, trying to breathe but couldn't find enough space to actually do it. In desperation, she jabbed upwards, elucidating a pained _yowl_ before Malfoy snarled, "Cut it Weasley. I don't _want to _land on you, you know."

He got up from above her then, and she took a fast breath to manage to say, "You give a pretty good impression that you do though."

She got up then, brushing her clothes as the proprietor of the shop glared at them before saying angrily, "You're late."

She felt like saying that it wouldn't make much of a difference since his shop was never used, which was why it had been chosen as the point where the Portkey would land them, but being the good girl she was, said instead, "We're really sorry."

The man just scowled at them. She was going to say something to smooth his ruffled feathers (wasn't that usually used for girls though) when a loud bang and an acrid smell filled the small dinghy room. The man grew so alarmingly red that she started fearing for his health. He struggled to take in enough air before shouting at them, "OUT!"

She turned and ran, herding Fred and James in front of her, trusting that the others could show themselves out. Once put the door, she placed her hands on her hips and glared at the tow in what she hoped was reminiscent enough of their grandmother that they would take her seriously. "What were you thinking? Or were you not doing that at all?"

James grinned at her mischievously as he asked, "Now where would be the fun in that?"

She huffed, flinging her arms up in the air. She felt like pulling out her own hair. Al's voice sounded from just behind her at that time, "That was a really good dung bomb."

They smiled at each other as Fred said, "An upgraded product. Stinks for at least three hours."

Al snickered at that, asking, "So the old man's going to smell like that too?"

A laugh from both James and Fred was answer enough. They stopped laughing though when they saw who was behind Al, "Roxie?"

"Yes?" she asked warily. Rose turned around to look at the girl too, wondering why if she was at Hogwarts; no one had bothered to tell her. She wasn't that close to Uncle George but Al was and he would have surely told her. He must not have known about it though as he asked, "I didn't know you were supposed to come today."

"That's because she wasn't. Dad expressly said that she wouldn't come before November at least, if she even attended school this year." Fred butted in before asking angrily, "Why are you here?"

Roxy answered mulishly, "Because today is Meet the Muggles Day and everyone is supposed to come today."

She was being deliberately mulish and since she shared Fred's concern, Rose asked, "But why are you even in school today?" Rose wasn't particularly interested in the answer. Roxy was and always would be exceedingly boring, something that caused her to look with extreme doubt on the friendship that had sprouted between the girl and Malfoy when she finally came to her senses in her first year. Still, Fred was her cousin and Roxy was being mulish, something that she was against and so she took his side and decided to interrogate Roxy if she had to. She really hoped that she wouldn't have to, there was a sale on some antique books that she really wanted to buy and she would hate to lose them to someone else.

Roxy stared wide eyed at the two of them before making a quick movement and hiding behind Malfoy. Rose stared in stupefaction. What just happened? Malfoy put his hands in his pockets and drawled out, "Really Weasley, drawing your wand on your own sister? And you call e bad."

Fred said irritably, "Relax Roxy. I'm just sending a Patronus to Dad. Can you imagine how worried they'll be when they find out you're gone?"

"And what makes you think they don't know she's here already?" Malfoy shot back. It was interesting how he was picking up for her cousin but he was deluding himself if he thought that Roxy had told anyone she was coming today.

She pursed her lips at him and answered before Fred could, "Because that's the kind of girl she is. She goes off everywhere without telling anyone and we have to then go searching for her."

"Yeah? Well did you ever think that maybe she tells and you just don't listen?" Malfoy asked angrily?

Rose blinked. She couldn't believe her own ears. For a moment, she had the insane though of cleaning her ears to make sure that there wasn't something in them making her hear things. She refrained, if only because she was sure that everyone around would laugh.

She took a calming breath, trying to fight the urge to rip off the gnat's face and when she felt as if she had her mauling tendencies sufficiently under control, she said, " You will shut your mouth about _my family_ right now or I'll rip out your innards, dice them into fifty-seven pieces, feed them to swamp alligators and then when they get indigestion due to your ivky ferretyness, feed their sick to you, after of course, blowing so many holes into you with a bazooka that you won't know which hole to breathe from and which to shit from."

She saw with pleasure Malfoy going a bit paler than he naturally was, and then give a shaky laugh before asking, "Really Weasley, no need to get bloodthirsty."

Eloise bit in sternly, "Really Rose, continue like that and people will start thinking that you might have a slight furry problem."

She frowned in confusion for a moment before yelping out, "Jeez El! _I spoke about feeding him to alligators, not myself!"_

Eloise sniffed, looking for all the world like an extremely strict governess as she said, "Big difference. Go near the Malfoy family and you'll find there are as many vanilla ways to torture someone as stars in the sky."

"Now that's saying too much El?" Al protested laughingly. "Constellations maybe, but surely not stars."

Eloise raised her eyebrows and asked, "Did I mention which patch of the sky?" Al laughed at that and said, "Why don't we leave the children to the bickering and do what we came here to do?"

Eloise shook her head with a cheeky expression on her face and asked, "Now why should the fact that you prefer my company over your cousin's mean that I prefer yours over Scorpius'?"

James bit in with an icy, "If we could please leave the flirting behind for the moment?"

They both nodded with sheepish expressions on their faces and Fred spoke, "I think I know my own sister enough to know that she is definitely not at Hogwarts with Dad's permission. And that means that she will be going back right now."

Roxy spoke then, drawing her attention to her and Rose noticed that her lips were trembling as she asked, "Have you forgotten that I happen to have two parents?"

At the clear pronunciation of the letter's', Fred asked in clear surprise, "When did you lose the lisp?"

Roxy twisted her lips and said bitterly, "When I stopped trying to spend time with my _family_. And yes, I didn't get Dad's permission, but if it were up to him, I'd never go to Hogwarts in the first place. After all," and the way she made a face, Rose knew that she was quoting, "Why should poor Roxy go to a magic school when she's clearly been invited to Hogwarts only because she's a Weasley. It is quite obvious that she's a Squib, that there's something wrong with her. No, this spattergroit is a good thing. It will get her used to not going to Hogwarts. Soon enough, she'll stop asking."

Malfoy put an arm around Roxy's shoulders and said coolly, "You can't make her go back. The Healers have given her a clear certificate."

Rose hated to draw herself in this matter, but really, a Squib? Spattergroit being good? She had to take a stand against something that was clearly wrong and so with a deprecating cough, she said, "Actually, even if you're a Squib, you're still not allowed into Hogwarts. Being a Weasley can have absolutely nothing to do with admittance since there simply wouldn't be her name in the roster. It's down from birth, you see." She explained and as Fred seemed ready to burst out with some complaint, Rose lifted a hand and said sternly, "And you have no right to tell her here she should be and where she shouldn't. Educational Degree 73B clearly states that any Magical child from the age of eleven to eighteen has the right to demand and acquire magical schooling, with or without the permission of their parents or legal guardians as long as they do not possess a threat to other students that cannot be neutralised." And yes, she was quoting. It was so much fun to memorise things by heart and then impress everyone with her ability to spout it off the top of her head. And okay, so maybe this particular audience wasn't looking particularly impressed and so she hurriedly turned o Roxy and said, "I don't particularly care whether you are here in Hogwarts or here at Bond Street. Simply don't break any rules and you can count on me to fight on your side. I want to become a lawyer." She said with quiet pride.

And then she looked at the time and seeing how close to the deadline she was, a little shriek left her and she yelled, "Bye!" to everyone and rushed off into the direction she thought the shop should be. It was so hard staying focused with a family like her along. She was really doubtful that she would be able to get more than 6 OWLs this year, oh the horror!

Eloise didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She needed to get back to the castle right then and it seemed as if a full blown Weasley family drama was about to start. She so did not have time for this. So she got in front of Fred Weasley, smiled menacingly at him and said, "You can continue spoiling my day and lose thirty points from Gryffindor, or you can turn around and walk off. What's it going to be?"

Weasley snorted and sneered, "Flint, did you forget or did it simply never lodge into your head that you _can't_ take off points?"

Eloise sneered back, in a very ladylike fashion of course, "Weasley, did you forget or did it simply never lodge into your extremely tiny brain that I _can_ give you detentions, and three in a row in the same day means you lose thirty points?"

Weasley looked flabbergasted at that and then said, pulling Potter beside him, "And did you forget or did you simply get blinded by the shine on this head Boy badge my friend here is wearing?" he looked triumphant and she so _hated _to bring him down, and yes that was sarcasm, and yet it had to be done.

Weasley. Toe rag Potter. You are the reason Gryffindor loses half its points every year. The only reason Potter here made Head Boy is because there's no one else. Not because he's believable, and definitely not because he's trustworthy. So knock it off before I do it for you."

"Do you honestly think that anyone's going to believe a Slytherin over us?" Potter asked, folding his arms to look more intimidating. It worked but the Slytherin backbone was based on nothing if not bravado. "Professor Siam would. And she's a Ravenclaw. You know what that means don't you?"

She adopted a pitiful expression and said, "Professor Siam. I am so sorry, but I felt that I really couldn't let a Seventh Year terrorize a little First Year, even if the Seventh Year happened to be her brother. I gave him detention, you see."

And Malfoy, the good boy, took up where she left and she flashed him a smile which he returned as he said, "And before that, Weasley took out his wand and attempted to cast the Patronus spell. Just because he failed is no reason to not punish him. So _I _gave him a detention. The whole Statue of Magical Secrecy thing, you know." The look on Malfoy's face was perfectly diabolical.

"And who gave the third Detention and why, may I ask?" Potter looked pleased with himself and Eloise paused at that. Who indeed? And then Roxanne piped up, "Why Rose of course. For threatening my rights and attempting to make me break the rules. That is against the rules, you know." She looked almost pious as she said that and Eloise grinned at that.

Weasley glared at his sister and asked, "And what makes you think that I'll mind a few measly points?"

Roxanne blinked innocently and then said with a positively saintly expression on her face, "It's the spirit of the thing you know. You would hate to be taken down by bureaucratic efficiency when your best friend is the boss of the bureau."

Eloise could have jumped with glee. Things were finally moving along and she was that much closer to getting where she wanted to be.

Weasley looked disgruntled as he muttered, "Fine, but you," and here he pointed at Roxanne. "Are going to stay five feet beside me at all times."

And Roxanne, the clever girl promptly pushed Scorpius between her brother and herself. None of the males looked very pleased with that and so she herself pushed in between them. She had had a pretty good idea and she would be damned if she spent her time on the longer plan that involved only Scorpius, the consummate liar. Much better to do it this way. Real emotions and all that.

And soon, as they walked down the street and turned towards the more heavily populated streets, Weasley took out a chocolate toffee from his pocket and unwrapping the cover, popped it into his mouth. She waited, giving no indication that she had noticed what he was doing except for shooting occasional glances his way. She turned to Scorpius and shooting him a warning glance said in a loud, clear voice, "Do you have anything to eat? I'm feeling slightly hungry."

Roxanne asked curiously, "But you just ate."

Eloise explained condescendingly, "Which is why I said just a little hungry. Kind of peckish."

Roxanne frowned and then told her brother, "Hey Fred, be a gentleman and give her your toffee, will you?"

Eloise sniffed and said in a derogatory tone, "He'll just give me a trick toffee. Not to mention, the only safe one is probably in his mouth and full of germs."

Weasley glared at her and turned to Potter to draw him into a discussion about Quidditch of all things. She could literally feel Scorpius' ears prick up at that. She resisted the urge to snort. Even Weasley and Potter weren't such big idiots that they would discuss their team strategy in front of a seeker from another team.

Roxanne spoke up again, "Fred. When you were busy plotting your next big prank, Flint here was taking care of me, even though I'm not in her House. You rally should give her a toffee. And not one of the trick ones either." She warned.

Eloise wanted to jump up in joy. Even if he gave her a perfectly good eatable, a little bit of acting and no one would know that he _hadn't_ accidentally handed her something not so innocent. She wanted to smile diabolically and rub her hands together in the classic villain pose, but refrained. It wasn't done yet.

Weasley reluctantly took out a toffee that was wrapped in the same way that the one he was eating had been and handed it to her with bone deep reluctance. She shot him a deeply suspicious look and opening it, slowly gave it a lick. She waited and Weasley said disgustedly, "Grow up Flint. Not even we spend all our seventh year plotting how to make a fifth year's life miserable. Just eat it and get it done with."

As Roxanne smiled reassuringly at her, she took a dramatic deep breath and popped it into her mouth. And instantly clutched Scorpius' palm and sagged.

Scorpius instantly took the weight of the girl leaning heavily into him and asked, "El?"

She said nothing but there was a reassuring squeeze to the hand she was holding. He had a slight idea of what was happening but it was always best to go slow and get it right. So he glared at Fred Weasley and asked in an angry voice, "_What did you give her_?"

Potter came closer and he moved a little, trying to make sure that he didn't get that close a look at her face. Potter straightened and said in a contemplative voice, "It looks like a Fainting Fancy. But I didn't know you had any of the classic ones. Aren't all those we have the unverified, modified versions?"

Weasley came to peer at her as well and said in confusion, "No, we don't. But I don't think that was anything except a normal chocolate toffee."

Roxanne asked furiously, "Don't be ridiculous. Does she look like she ate nothing except a normal chocolate sweet?"

Weasley said doubtfully, "Well, she _could_ be allergic to chocolate."

Scorpius said sternly, "Don't even try that."

The Weasleys and Potter started debating then as to what should be done with the seemingly unconscious Eloise since evidently, they didn't have an antidote of the new Fancies and had to wait it out but he didn't pay them any attention as just then, Eloise started signalling to him in the hand squeeze system that all proper Purebloods learned from the cradle. The press of each different finger put together in different formations each formed a different word, with the thumb acting as space and two double presses from it as a Stop.

He kept an impassive face as he tried to decode what she was signalling. It had been ages since he had practiced and it wasn't coming to him easily at all. What he came up with was _A pig pressed in a room in the shop stuffed. Together._

That didn't make sense at all and he quietly tried to signal that to her. he had the feeling that he didn't quite succeed as she let out a small nearly silent huff and whispered from near his collar, where she was leaning, "Put me in the common room in the castle alone."

He blinked. Well, at least he got the _'room in the' _part right, small consolation that it was.

He shifted her a little, she was really good at acting unconscious, and spoke up so that the arguing cousins could hear him, "Why don't you take her to the school and simply drop her somewhere to recover? Or even better yet, take her to the school, give her one of the normal antidotes and voila!"

Roxanne suggested in a voice that sounded very unsure, as if she was sure that she was going to be shot down instantly, "Why don't you try a Finite Incantatum at her?"

Fred Weasley smiled derisively and said, "You might not have any faith in Dad, but believe me, he knows what he's doing. It's not a spell, but a biological reaction. Just like Finite doesn't work on poison, it doesn't work on Wheezes."

Roxanne blushed painfully but Scorpius noticed that only peripherally. If it had been anyone except Fred Weasley, he might have been impressed with what the boy knew. But Scorpius had been coddled just enough that he didn't believe in acknowledging achievements unless he felt like it. Also, all through his childhood, he had been treated as if it was his right to be listened to at all times. Even Weasley never ignored him. So he felt perfectly justified in kicking Potter and loudly proclaiming, "Hey! While you're arguing, Eloise could be dying here!" When Potter turned back to him, he continued silkily, "Or did I get it wrong when you said 'unverified' and I took it to mean untested for human consumption?"

From the suddenly pale expressions of the two pranksters, it was obvious he hadn't gotten it wrong. He could have laughed at the hilarity of it all. Here were the two people in Hogwarts who had gotten away with almost everything accepting the blame for something they hadn't even done. He indeed would have laughed, except that it was a sobering realisation that these two even pranked people accidentally enough that it was second nature to accept it happening around them. Eloise tightened her grip on his hand enough to make him wince, but since the people in front of him were looking at him, he felt it might mess up her plan to get back to the castle if he suddenly started talking to an unconscious girl.

Fred Weasley spoke up then, asking something that he was sure Eloise approved of. He knew, she griped his arm tighter for a second to show support. He was sure she would have shaken his arm if she felt that she could get away with it. "Why on earth should _we_ take her back to the castle? And aren't you supposed to care about you friend enough to at least tell us to drop her in your common room?"

Scorpius cleared his throat and said, "For starters, Reason number One. Some of us actually have thing to buy that we cannot do without and which might have a pretty good chance of getting out of our hands forever."

Potter asked arrogantly, "Like what?"

Scorpius smiled and said, "Like books. You know those things you buy every year and make paper planes out of? Some of us actually do know how to read, you know."

Weasley smirked and said proudly, "Well, _some_ of us aren't hopeless nerds."

Scorpius smiled at him sweetly. Nothing was more calculated to make them feel more ill at ease than their enemy smiling at them cheerfully. And so he made a point of doing it whenever he felt like being particularly unsettling. It always worked. When Weasley looked enough discomforted, he said, "When you're in front of me for having me for having broken another rule and the question of whether you spend your life in prison or free rests with me, I'll remind you of what you said."

Roxanne interrupted before they could say anything more and asked hurriedly, "What's the second reason?"

He smile charmingly as he said at direct contrasts to his smile, "I'll be damned if I tell a Gryffindor the password to the Slytherin Common Room."

Potter let out an unwilling chuckle and said, "I can understand that."

Weasley looked at Eloise, whom he had finally put down on the pavement, much to her displeasure and sighed before remarking, "Well… it _is_ our fault and I guess we should put her somewhere safe for the time being but I really don't want to miss our day you know."

Scorpius shook his head in disappointment and asked, "You're not thinking of buying Muggle firecrackers, are you? Because they always go fiss at Hogwarts or whenever you do magic around them. Kinda as if you just dumped a bucket full of water on them."

"You can't know that!" both Potter and Weasley protested at the same time.

He looked wryly at them and said, "Yes I can actually. Tried to put some in Rose's bag. Didn't work out quite as I planned. She return fired and _her_ bombs worked."

"We're still not taking her back."

Roxanne frowned and said, "The least you can do is hold her then."

Potter cast a suffering look at her but did it and Roxanne started emptying her pockets and putting it on top of Eloise's body, which was being carried by Potter. Finally, she placed a bottle on top of her but it started to topple. He shouted, "Stop it!" and Weasley thrust forward a hand to catch it, pushing it against Potter's hand and Eloise's body and Roxanne shouted instantly, "Hogwarts Quidditch pitch!"

Alice frowned at the two boys in front of her and then at the girl they had laid at her feet and asked, "What do you want _me _to do?"

Fred shrugged and said, "Beats me."

James glared at him and then said to her, "I know you're really good with plants. Wasn't there something that you used when Al got knocked out at Quidditch and Madam Hester was sick."

_Ah!_ He meant dippleweed. It tank to hi r to wake up almost anyone. She had s with her right then and taking it out, waved it in front of Eloise's nose. It worked really quickly too, and spluttering and gasping, the girl sat up with tearing eyes. She panted and Alice asked in concern, "Are you okay?"

The girl turned wide as saucers eyes at her and asked in a shuddery voice, "Define okay."

James waved at her cheerfully and said, "Well. Our work's done here. Bye."

Just then, a beam of sunlight him, lighting his hair and giving him an angelic air. His hair shone brightly, coppery in places and golden in others. It hurt to realise that he was so…handsome! Wit surprise, she realised that the boy who used to pull her hair and push her had grown up. And that she felt something for him. It was as sobering realisation. And ot a particularly welcome one.

Eloise picked herself off the floor and muttered a grumpy, "Well, don't mind me. I'll just leave."

Alice only dimly heard her, not realising till much later that it would be the last time anyone saw the girl for a long time. She was too busy staring at James go and wondering about the absurdity of it all. That and the fact that fifteen was entirely too young for this.


	7. the trouble with books

Chapter 6

**A/N: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters in this chapter, except the one at the very end. Maybe. I'm not quit sure about him.**

Rose looked at the ancient, nearly falling to pieces books and nearly moaned in pleasure. _The Autobiography of Something Gone Wrong, Nasty Things and what to do to Oppose Them, A Look at the Ages_ and so many more. The bookstore was owned by a Squib and he had recently been donated a few books for his personal collection. Unfortunately enough, he didn't like their look, and so here they were; an entire aisle full of books and other small curios that were part of the collection. Sometimes, Rose thought with glee, it paid to have permission slips to the Restricted Section. So many things that she would have never found out otherwise. Including the names of certain books written during troubled times in Wizarding History that were hence hidden with spells _and_ their counter spells. Rose loved herself and she especially loved these books. She just hoped that the fact that the books being on Sale, would come cheap enough that she would be able to afford more than just one. A little bit of bartering surely couldn't hurt either since the books _were_ old.

She picked up a beautiful little book and _oofed_ at its weight. It was certainly heavier than its size warranted. It was covered in red leather with gold curling script on it. She brought the book closer to her eyes to decipher the writing, feeling a strange fear when all she saw were strange hazy patterns. _Surely she wasn't going blind as everyone always suggested._ She was suddenly shoved from behind and watched in dismay as if in slow motion, she tripped, starting falling and the book slipped from her suddenly lax grip to come to a thump behind the low wooden bookcase that was just a few inches away from the wall, not able to hug the wall because of the two support pillars right in front of the wall. The book managed to land itself straight into the narrow gap and was lost from sight. She herself got saved by the case digging into her ribs. It was not a pleasant sensation at all.

Furious, she turned around to flail angrily at whoever had pushed her and then not even attempted to catch her and stop her fall and came to a shocked standstill. "You!" she screeched.

The blond in front of her gaped at her in return for an instant before shouting, "What are you doing here!"

It was an exclamation yet the words themselves were a question and she got even angrier at the thought that he felt justified in demanding what she was doing there. As if she couldn't be wherever she felt like being! She shot back angrily, "What are _you _doing here?" and then she asked suspiciously as a thought crossed her mind, "_Are you stalking me?" _

"Don't be _delusional_ Weasley! Clearly, you're the one who's stalking me." He looked horrified even at the thought.

"Why on earth would I do that?" she asked with a little incredulous laugh.

"The same reason you told everyone that you fancy me," he said smugly. "Because you do."

She looked him up and down and then stated, "That is seriously messed up reasoning."

He didn't even seem to have heard her as he went off into a tirade all of his own and asked the passer-by's, "Really, man. I save her from falling down a tower and next thing I know she's _stalking _me."

She looked at how they had somehow managed to attract the attention of the sparse population of the bookstore and with a classic Weasley blush on her face, said feeling humiliated and embarrassed at the same time, "That's a lie!"

"Oh! So you _didn't_ push me off the tower last night?" he asked with an arched eyebrow.

She took a look around and noticed that the people around were looking at her with what looked a lot like Disapproval. Feeling compelled to defend herself she protested, "No I didn't! I pulled you!"

"Aha!" he exclaimed, pointing a finger at her. "So you admit it was your fault."

"I do nothing of that sort!" she objected. "And did you forget that it was actually me who pulled you up?"

He waved that away negligently. "Pshaw. The only reason you pulled me up was because I pushed you up first. Or did you forget the whole, _Malfoy, I can't move! Please save me?" _ He had to be kidding, she thought with mounting frustration. He couldn't actually think he could get away with that, did he?

"_It was all your fault_! You pushed me down first, remember?"

"_I DID NOT"_ he yelled with flashing eyes that suddenly looked a lot more green than grey. "You fell down!"

"_Only because you kept coming forward!"_

"You couldn't stand up to me?" he asked sarcastically. "You seem to like making my life hell quite enough."

She snorted, crossing her arms. "Have you looked at yourself?" she asked incredulously. "You're like _Six inches_ taller than me. What do you take me for?"

He seemed to deflate all of a sudden and then clarified, "You mean to say that I'm _physically intimidating?"_

"It's not my fault you grew up," she answered sulkily. "I liked you a lot better when you were a reedy, sun deprived git."

He gave a chuckle that seemed to say 'Isn't this all just ridiculous?' before asking incredulously, "When I was the _reedy, sun deprived git_ that you seem to have liked so much, you slipped eel eyes down my collar."

"_YOU RUINED MY GRADE!"_ she exclaimed with thrown up hands.

"_You did that all by yourself! I didn't even have to sneeze!" _he countermanded slightly hysterically.

"_I failed!"_ she shouted, starting to feel slightly crazy.

"So did most of the class!" he shouted back.

"You didn't!" she shot back.

He threw up his hands and did a whole turn around before asking in frustration, "Do you honestly mean to say Weasley that we spent the entire five years we have known each other fighting just because _I_ passed and _you_ _didn't_?"

She paused, looking at him and feeling as if there ought to be some sort of answer to that other than _yes_. There wasn't and so she asked hesitantly, "_Yes?"_

He came towards her then in long bounds and to her everlasting shock, boxed her ears.

"OW!" she yowled, clutching her head in pain.

"THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU DESERVE!" he shouted at her. Then turning towards Roxy said in a strictly controlled voice, "Why don't we get what we came here to get?"

She gave a sickly sort of smile at her and then told him, "Actually, I didn't even want to come here. _You _were the one who wanted to buy something."

"Roxanne!" he made a frustrated sort of sound and Rose shrieked, "Kick him!"

Malfoy turned towards her again, and taking her by surprise, twisted her ear. She made a raspy chocking kind of sound but refused to react further. Folding her arms firmly across her chest so that her hands couldn't possibly make their way to rub her now throbbing ears she said archly, "You Malfoy, happen to be a girl beater."

And then she promptly proceeded to knee him in the groin, twice of course. Once would have been entirely too less satisfactory. And then she started to rub her poor, swollen ears and muttering, "OW! OW! OW!"

Meanwhile, Malfoy clutched his precious family jewels and made some sort of keening noise before telling her with an extremely red face and tears in his eyes, "THAT HURT!" it was nearly a pained screech.

Roxanne told the people around her with a sigh as she again found herself on the side-lines, "Don't worry. They really do fancy each other extremely. They just can't seem to keep their hands off each other. It's entirely normal. It happens all the time."

And as the people started making their way to other parts of the surprisingly big store, many of them shaking their heads, she told herself fervently, "Entirely too often for my taste."

And if a reporter from Teen Magazine published their photo in the magazine with a small article titled _LOVE IN THE DAYS OF TODAY_, it was entirely their fault. After all, they could have denied it all.

Roxy laughed, she chuckled, she oohed and she ahed. And through it all, two pairs of eyes, one blue and one greenish-grey, glared at each other. Temporary truce was one thing, being cordial completely another.

Rose broke off the eye lock they had going on when Roxy tugged on her sleeve and asked sternly, eying her malevolently all the while, "What?"

She answered with a frown on her face, "Why did you come here? Scorpius did because he wanted Essence of..OW!"

Rose watched interestedly while Malfoy stomped on Roxy's foot and shot her a warning glare. She held her mouth though when he turned to look at her as if she was going to just start spouting off questions at him. She didn't _need_ to waste air talking to him; she could simply follow him when he went off on his own. Malfoy held her gaze for another moment before turning back to Roxy and saying knowingly, "Books. She gets nothing except books. And Clement Davies."

"Oh!" she huffed. Damn truces and all that. She yanked his hair. He yowled, looking just like an overgrown cat while he did it and then pulled her ponytail. It hurt but she didn't let go, though of course, he had the advantage. In a hair pulling contest, the one with short hair always wins over the one with long hair. It was practically a rule of the cosmos. She didn't know how long they would have gone at it like that and certainly not how much longer she could have managed to keep her hands off her wand but she didn't get the time to find out as Roxy let out an ear splitting whistle.

She looked and Malfoy and he looked at her. She saw the exact moment when he realised that what he was doing was so childish that even children had probably stopped doing it and he let go instantly. She removed her own hand, feeling as if it was burnt, it felt that hot. She held his gaze for one more second before coming to her senses and brushing off non-existent dust off her clothes. Except there really was some dust on her shirt and she started brushing it off enthusiastically, feeling relieved. She really didn't know what had come over her, because for a second, she had been on the verge of thinking that his eyes were beautiful. _Oh shucks!_ She shut her eyes at the thought. She did think it after all. Good thing there was no legilimence around to hear it.

She opened her eyes instantly when she heard Malfoy say in a completely calm voice, "I'm going over there, okay Rox. I don't think this truce thing is really working." And he put his words to action, striding off with abnormally large steps. She fumed. Of course he was calm and collected. What had she expected, that he'd take a look at her and think that her eyes were bottomless pools in which he could drown? He was more likely to say that her eyes ought to be brown. At least then she'd have a reason to have such dull eyes that people would literally sink and drown. Kind of like quicksand.

She shook her head at the thought. This was crazy. Here she was, agonising over the fact that Malfoy had just calmly walked off while she had been musing over how bright and like a rainy day sky, the best kind of sky in her opinion, his eyes were. She was going mad. That was the only answer.

Wait! He just walked off? _He just got rid of her!_ She swore. The boy was a wily as a forest sprite that really didn't want to get caught. But he had underestimated Rose Weasley, she told herself. If there was anything he didn't want her to know, it was definitely something she was going to find out. She followed him, turning into a cubicle like big space where she thought she had seen him disappear. She came to a stop though, Roxy asked after her, "Where are you going?"

She had completely forgetting about her. hence, she was so startled at the sudden sound that the next thing she knew, she was falling over taking a stool with little figurines on it along with her.

She got up slowly with a wince, feeling for hurts and broken bones. Nothing thankfully. Her ribs hurt, but nothing like what a broken bone would feel like, she imagined. The first time she ever saw anyone obtain a broken bone, the girl cried for two hours straight. This hurt but not that much. Of course, it could be because she was fifteen while that girl had been six at the time but she didn't think so. She could breathe with only slight pain and that seemed good enough. She looked around, noticing only Roxy and wondered where the store staff was. There was bound to be someone who had noticed the loud crashing. There was, but it was not someone she expected.

"PUT YOUR HAND UP AND COME OUT RIGHT NOW OR I'LL SHOOT!"

She paused, her mind going curiously blank. Surely there wasn't a mugging in progress? She came to action only when the man repeated in a voice that sounded closer, "I MEAN IT! COME OUT NOW OR I'LL SHOOT!"

She looked around in panic, wondering what to do and she realised that they were exactly where she had met Malfoy and Roxy. And more importantly, where that red book had fallen inside the gap that was formed by the pillars and the chest length shelf. They were at the very back of the shop, cornered in as Boadicea the Badass would say, but still hidden from eyes by stalls that made a kind of cubicle around them. It prevented their backing away from any other directions, but, dare she hope, maybe give them a chance to hide?

She pulled Roxy up to it, and peering into the darkened area, noticed with relief that there was just enough space for at least one person. A very short person, since there didn't seem to be any space for any knee bending and body twisting. As she looked into Roxy's scared face, she heard the footsteps and realised that the man was nearly on them. It might be just a prank, or maybe she had misinterpreted the words but better safe than sorry.

She gripped Rosy around the waist and ignoring her startled yelp, lifted her and upended her into the empty space. At the last moment, her weight grew too much for Rose and she lost her grip so that the younger girl fell with a thumping sound. Rose winced but turned around swiftly and tried to hide in the shadows, a bit hard as there were fluorescent lights in the ceiling. She strictly kept her eyes forward and tried to ignore the thumping of her knees as the hand clutching what looked like a real gun, and not one of the water guns that Hugo had played with when he was a child, came around the corner of the first bookshelf.

**A/N: suspense! For all those who want to know, imagine a wall with two pillars half protruding from it. Then imagine a chest high bookshelf stuck right to the pillars, leaving a space between itself and the wall, naturally. Then imagine a normal library king of bookshelf perpendicular to the previous shelf. Then imagine to same size(big) bookshelves, end to end to each other, standing perpendicularly to the previous shelf. No imagine that the last bookshelf just imagined is about two people's width from the side wall. And VOILA!**

**Please review. **


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